Manchester United’s five most overrated players: Several starters make the list
By Josh McSwain
4. Zlatan Ibrahimovic
He pretty much was the team’s offense last season. But his numbers weren’t necessarily because of pure skill as much as they were there out of necessity. I’m not saying all of them were–for instance the penalty kick that secured a point against Everton in the waning moments last year.
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That is a play that I’m not sure anyone else on the team would have made. As much as he gathered up the goals for United last season he also wasted a lot of chances and hindered the pace of young guys like Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial.
I’m not saying that Ibrahimovic is not good. In fact, to suggest that would be insane. However, I would say that he is somewhat overvalued. I believe that even last year had Rashford or Martial played at the striker position in almost every game they would have accumulated goals. I’m not sure how many either would have racked up, perhaps neither would have scored as many as Ibrahimovic.
But even if Ibra is better than both Martial and Rashford, it doesn’t mean that he is not somewhat overpraised. It still remains to be seen how he comes back from his knee operation, and while he has had a stellar career at this point he’s just not what he used to be. Still a guy who can get it done, but won’t be a superstar anymore.