Zlatan - Contract to be extended

Did we do this to keep the American Retirement clubs away? Can imagine too many top European/PL teams were considering him?
Would have been worth waiting to Christmas to see how things pan out with his form/fitness
 
To be honest, I'm not overly excited about this.

From what I've seen of him so far, yes he gets a few goals, but his movement isn't great, he isn't very fast and just doesn't offer the same threat someone like Aguero or Costa would. Personally I think he peaked a long time ago and we are getting the bad end of his career. If we are keeping him for a further year, he isn't going to get any faster or any more hungry.

I would of moved him on next Summer then bought in someone like Griezmann. Imagine him, Martial and Rashford running towards a defense. Terrifying!
 
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Nori- said:
To be honest, I'm not overly excited about this.

From what I've seen of him so far, yes he gets a few goals, but his movement isn't great, he isn't very fast and just doesn't offer the same threat someone like Aguero or Costa would. Personally I think he peaked a long time ago and we are getting the bad end of his career and to be honest, if we are keeping him for a further year, he isn't going to get any faster or any more hungry.

I would moved him on next Summer then bought in someone like Griezmann. Imagine him, Martial and Rashford running towards a defense. Terrifying!
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We should probably be getting a new striker plus keeping Ibra, just because he's getting a second season doesn't mean he'll necessarily play every game like he has been so far. Imagine what you've just said but also with Ibrahimovic on the bench.
 
Presuming he picks up his form its good, if not it would be a bad decision to extend.
 
B20 said:
You'd think you guys had learned something about giving extensions to players rapidly approaching their list hill to cross over from Rooney.

But by all means, pay crazy money to your backup striker next year.
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It's a one year extension. It quiets all the speculation we'd be hearing from Christmas on. It's not a big deal.
 
I'm not thrilled by this. There's still 2/3 of the season to go it's way too early for this news.
 
Crazy to extend it now

Remember There was rumours around this time two years ago that falcao was going to extend his deal. Thank feck we didn't

We should be waiting until at least march or April before deciding this,
 
He's not a Falcao case. He's been fine but his finishing could have been better.

Not particularly bothered either way about the extension.
 
B20 said:
You'd think you guys had learned something about giving extensions to players rapidly approaching their list hill to cross over from Rooney.

But by all means, pay crazy money to your backup striker next year.
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Hmm, he’s scored as many goals in the league as your best goalscorer.
 
Huge risk and it wasnt needed. We can evaluate his situation in March or April. I know he and Pogba are our marketing milk cows, but we should have waited another 3-4 months from a sporting perspective.
 
izec said:
Huge risk and it wasnt needed. We can evaluate his situation in March or April. I know he and Pogba are our marketing milk cows, but we should have waited another 3-4 months from a sporting perspective.
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In what way is it a huge risk?
 
Randall Flagg said:
But what's the harm in waiting?
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Or flip it, what's the point in waiting? He's not Ruud but he's not Falcao either... while he does a job and until we've got three (min) decent forwards, may as well stay? Martial/Rashford are kids and managing their game time for another 1-2 seasons while watching (and hopefully learning) from a player like Zlatan should only help them.
 
TrustInJanuzai said:
From what I've seen of Ibrahimovic he's still every bit the world class player we signed. His hold up play is still very good and all our best moves have started or finished with him this season. His finishing the past month has been disappointing for sure but again as mentioned in another post his record over the years shows that happens rarely and never for prolonged periods.
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Yeah true and if he was 25 i wouldn't be worrying about it at all but he's 35, every striker gets to the point where they decline and some do so sharply. I'm not saying he can't recover his goal scoring form but it's possible that he won't be as prolific as he has been previously from now on in his career.

The predictions of him scoring 35+ goals this season seemed optimistic to me, personally i thought closer to 25. But at this stage he would actually do well to manage 20 this year. For a striker who is playing virtually every game up front thats not really good enough.

TrustInJanuzai said:
One of our problems is that the current Ibrahimovic is so immobile that he's a cherry on top player. The team, system, tactics all need to be down to a tee to get the best out of ibrah. You might say well if he can only perform in those conditions he's not world class but personally I think that's just down to building a team to suit your players. Overall I just don't see a massive risk in extending the deal either way.
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I don't think theres a much risk financially in extending his stay, the money he's paid is irrelevant. The club is loaded, but that doesn't mean it might not turn out to be a mistake from a footballing point of view. I just don't think he's good enough nor young enough to build a team around or for the level we are aspiring to get back to.

I hope i'm wrong and he goes onto score another 20 goals this year. But i'm just giving my opinion on him from what i've seen this season. And what i've seen is a classy player who can have great games, but too often is anonymous, is no longer a clinical finisher and to be honest as you even hint at doesn't really suit our set-up.
 
BeforeKeanetherewasRobson said:
Or flip it, what's the point in waiting? He's not Ruud but he's not Falcao either... while he does a job and until we've got three (min) decent forwards, may as well stay? Martial/Rashford are kids and managing their game time for another 1-2 seasons while watching (and hopefully learning) from a player like Zlatan should only help them.
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Injury
Continued loss of form
Better CFs becoming available
 
I'm fine with it. Sorting out the wings is a bigger issue for our attacking play.
 
Honestly not chuffed about us wanting to keep him for another year, most propably it will prevent us from getting someone who would fit as better.
 
Good player but doesn't deserve an extension based on where we stand and how much he has contributed. He might have scored 6 goals but has gone missing regularly causing United to drop points and seems to be more static due to his age. Rather let him go at the end of the season.
 
Rhyme Animal said:
Injury
Continued loss of form
Better CFs becoming available
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You can't not renew contracts for a player (any player) because they MIGHT get an injury - we'd never buy anyone. He's got a good rep for injuries.

"Continued loss of form"??? Think that's harsh and if it was the case, Zlatan would be at the back of a pretty long queue.
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
Erm... he's scored 6 in 11 in the league, at that rate he'll be scoring over 20 league goals*. He already has 2 in the cups so my question is....

What are you on about @stevoc ?
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He's scored 8 in 17 which on the face of it isn't bad at all, in fact it's good. But 4 of those came in his first 3 games, and one of them in the Charity Shield. Stats can be deceiving, between the Southampton match in mid August and the Bournemouth match in early November he scored 1 league goal.

For much of the games in that period i found him to be quite poor. For the record i hope you are right and he does go on to score 20 league goals.

Regulus Arcturus Black said:
*and that's also on the assumption that we don't improve as a team match by match (which is contrary to the evidence) and that Zlatan doesn't improve as he gets to know his surroundings better and better (which is also contrary to past evidence).
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What assumption are you speaking of?

In the second half my post that you decided to leave out i said i hope he goes on to score a bucket load this season. I'm not ruling it out, i am simply judging him on what i've seen so far.
 
Rado_N said:
In what way is it a huge risk?
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Maybe not a huge risk, but a risk nonetheless. I am not really keen to see how Zlatan will play next season. A year can make a difference performance wise. He wont be dropped too even if he plays badly, which will hinder us again next season. I would rather see how he plays in the second half of the season and then make a decision.
 
Not happy with this. He misses too many chances and we don't have the players around him to a) get the best out of him b) create so many chances that he can afford to miss most of them.

We need to be looking for the next Aguero or Suarez, or go after someone like Griezmann or Aubameyang.
 
BeforeKeanetherewasRobson said:
You can't not renew contracts for a player (any player) because they MIGHT get an injury - we'd never buy anyone. He's got a good rep for injuries.

"Continued loss of form"??? Think that's harsh and if it was the case, Zlatan would be at the back of a pretty long queue.
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Yep. Didn't he have a brace last time out? The whole age deal is relative as well. Everyone ages, but at 35 he's in fantastic shape. He could have the physio of another player at 28. Not so hung up on the age number.
 
Good news. Still one of the best strikers in the World

Obviously I'd prefer a younger, more prime and mobile striker like Aguero or Suarez. But Zlatan is still class
 
stevoc said:
He's scored 8 in 17 which on the face of it isn't bad at all, in fact it's good. But 4 of those came in his first 3 games, and one of them in the Charity Shield. Stats can be deceiving, between the Southampton match in mid August and the Bournemouth match in early November he scored 1 league goal.

For much of the games in that period i found him to be quite poor. For the record i hope you are right and he does go on to score 20 league goals.



What assumption are you speaking of?

In the second half my post that you decided to leave out i said i hope he goes on to score a bucket load this season. I'm not ruling it out, i am simply judging him on what i've seen so far.
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Agreed, the stats give a quite misleading view of his season so far.
 
Rhyme Animal said:
Injury
Continued loss of form
Better CFs becoming available
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Spot on. Obviously nothing's been rubber stamped yet but a lot can change in 6 months, bit daft coming out with it now.
 
Jaxdan said:
Yep. Didn't he have a brace last time out? The whole age deal is relative as well. Everyone ages, but at 35 he's in fantastic shape. He could have the physio of another player at 28. Not so hung up on the age number.
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He jogs across the pitch and barely puts any pressure on defenders. Of course he still looks fit, probably the most immobile outfield player we have.
 
BeforeKeanetherewasRobson said:
You can't not renew contracts for a player (any player) because they MIGHT get an injury - we'd never buy anyone. He's got a good rep for injuries.

"Continued loss of form"??? Think that's harsh and if it was the case, Zlatan would be at the back of a pretty long queue.
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Before his brace against Swansea, he went on a spell of playing 90 minutes for 6 games and not scoring.

So if you wanted to be harsh, you could view it that he has 2 goals in his last 540 minutes of PL football...

More to the point, during those 6 games he missed a lot of chances, good chances that've cost us points and league position. And he played 90 mins in all of those games.

Why not wait until after the Christmas period and see how he's kicked on?

I mean, if he goes on another 6 game drought, this decision will look ridiculous.
 
Sammyjunn said:
He jogs across the pitch and barely puts any pressure on defenders. Of course he still looks fit, probably the most immobile outfield player we have.
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He's also pressured the opponent's defence a lot of times only to find out the rest of the attacking players not following.
 
Rhyme Animal said:
Before his brace against Swansea, he went on a spell of playing 90 minutes for 6 games and not scoring.

So if you wanted to be harsh, you could view it that he has 2 goals in his last 540 minutes of PL football...

More to the point, during those 6 games he missed a lot of chances, good chances that've cost us points and league position. And he played 90 mins in all of those games.

Why not wait until after the Christmas period and see how he's kicked on?

I mean, if he goes on another 6 game drought, this decision will look ridiculous.
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Yes, and if you wanted to be glowing you could say he's scored 2 in his last 90+ minutes. :cool: Ah yes...stats.

Look nobody can predict how he'll do going forward. I expect him NOT to miss some of the ones he did, and think he'll have 20 or so goals at seasons end. Everything is a risk, I just don't think a one year extension is much of one.
 
Good to have as a back up I suppose. But I'm not liking how the team has to do so much to accomodate his game, Arsenal game was a good example of how we look without him and Rooney slowing things down. Plus even when he gets the team serving it up for him, his finishing in last couple of months has really let us down.
I'd prefer Rashford to be main striker in prem games, with Zlatan as back up and Europa game starter.
 
top1whoisman said:
He's also pressured the opponent's defence a lot of times only to find out the rest of the attacking players not following.
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Mwah, the difference between how someone like Rashford puts pressure on defenders and that "almost running" is clear as night and day. One of the reasons including others that we barely win the ball high up the pitch. But thats more players than Zlatan tbf.
 
Rhyme Animal said:
Before his brace against Swansea, he went on a spell of playing 90 minutes for 6 games and not scoring.

So if you wanted to be harsh, you could view it that he has 2 goals in his last 540 minutes of PL football...

More to the point, during those 6 games he missed a lot of chances, good chances that've cost us points and league position. And he played 90 mins in all of those games.

Why not wait until after the Christmas period and see how he's kicked on?

I mean, if he goes on another 6 game drought, this decision will look ridiculous.
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Maybe and if we were flush with in-form forwards, I might have a different opinion but right now, holding on to him for a year is fine. Don't think it'll stop us buying IF the right player is available and that won't be until May/June next year.

If we're going on form, Rooney'd be gone ... maybe Martial too? (plus a handful of MF/Defs). Zlatan can do more agreed, finish better too, but he's not the main issue in this team/squad.
 
Jaxdan said:
Yes, and if you wanted to be glowing you could say he's scored 2 in his last 90+ minutes. :cool: Ah yes...stats.

Look nobody can predict how he'll do going forward. I expect him NOT to miss some of the ones he did, and think he'll have 20 or so goals at seasons end. Everything is a risk, I just don't think a one year extension is much of one.
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So why not wait a bit? Until he's proven he can comfortably reach, say, 15?
 
Sammyjunn said:
Mwah, the difference between how someone like Rashford puts pressure on defenders and that "almost running" is clear as night and day. One of the reasons including others that we barely win the ball high up the pitch. But thats more players than Zlatan tbf.
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Yeah, Rashford is a great example of how to put pressure on players - the pressure he put on Oxlade-Chamberlain before he had a free cross for Arsenals last minute equalizer was the perfect example?

Some people like/dislike certain players and fit 'facts' to suit....
 
BeforeKeanetherewasRobson said:
Yeah, Rashford is a great example of how to put pressure on players - the pressure he put on Oxlade-Chamberlain before he had a free cross for Arsenals last minute equalizer was the perfect example?
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And I thought AOC wasnt a defender, dont reply if you have no idea what it's about. Rash has scored numerous goals just because of work ethic and fighting for every ball.
 
B20 said:
You'd think you guys had learned something about giving extensions to players rapidly approaching their list hill to cross over from Rooney.

But by all means, pay crazy money to your backup striker next year.
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Better to keep Ibra on high wages than letting him go and paying 20+M and wages for another player worse than him

If the plan is that Martial and Rashford still are the future of this team keeping Ibra instead of signing a mediocre player is the right call
 
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