Wednesday 6 July 2011

ZLATAN...you are the man, but you already knew that didn't you?



Having a starting point on discussing this man is very difficult, if not impossible, but i will try. Various articles are very interested when reporters make cases for why he is either brilliant OR rubbish. The man divides opinion, one thing for sure though, is that Zlatan is cock sure of how damn good he is, and i have to agree.

When it comes to people here that i talk to, its hard to ever talk about him without finding yourself going on a rant, for a couple of reasons. So many fans base their opinion on a player on one thing and one thing only, and that is the Champions League. The reason for this is because that is where they get to see the big boys from around Europe come out to play through the coverage we get from Sky, ITV etc etc you get the point. They then get to see the likes of Bayern, Inter, Milan, Juventus, Ajax, Barca and Madrid play, sometimes though they only watch them if they are playing a big match or another English team is not on TV, other than that, they will watch them on highlights shown directly after the feature match. Nothing wrong with this, its good that people watch the highlights, better than not watching anything at all. The problem is, they base their opinion on a player from these highlights, or from the couple of games they see a player play in the competition from playing their team.

This leads me to Zlatan, people i know actually have called him a very bad player, come on you cant be serious? You watch maybe 2 full games of this man a season.......if even that, and if he has an off game or just does not score, then you make your mind up on him. One thing worth point out, is that the Swede does not have a great record in the Champions League, in fact, he left Inter and they won the competition, he then leaves Barca....guess what? they then go on and win it. If a fan was to indeed take time out to watch Zlatan in the Italian league, then they would just see why he is one of the best players in the world, his touch is just simply fantastic, up there with the best touch in World football. He can change a game in seconds, he can win a match all by himself also. So, many will say he is a big game bottler, this is also false, terribly false in fact. If you were to watch the Milan derby last season, he cause all sorts of problems against his former club, getting, and scoring the penalty that indeed won the game. Just 6 minutes into his first ever El Clasico, Zlatan popped up and volleyed home the winner, what a goal that was.


Maybe we should check this pass out? There was not much need for it, but hey, its wonderful to watch..



Ok enough with the videos, lets take a look at his, according to people i talk to in Ireland, flop season in Spain? This actually makes me laugh. He is actually still a Barcelona player, although Milan will want him and the fee set was not much more than £20million. Ibrahimovic did not ask for Barca to pay in and around £40million plus Samuel Eto'o for him. Talk at the time was, Eto'o had to leave die to falling out with players/staff etc and was thrown in as a sweetner to make the loss of Inter's best player a little less painful. Ibrahimovic scored 16 goals in 29 league games, and only 23 of them were from the start of a game. Not bad is it? Add in some goals in the Champions League against Arsenal and you have got a top quality striker. He did not fit in with Barca's style of play and that inevitably has led to him leaving. Barca wanted a plan B, he did not fit that bill, although playing some great stuff, he just didn't suit. 

Zlatan has won, and quote me on this, 8 league titles.....in 8years, a title every year for 8 years. This is no coincidence, he can clearly be disruptive, but clearly one of footballs best players. 

La Gazzetta dello Sport summed it: "Serie A is a tournament in which various teams compete, and then at the end Zlatan Ibrahimovic wins."

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