Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic proves double trouble for Southampton

THEGUARDIAN

 Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrates after scoring from the penalty spot to double Manchester United’s lead. Photograph: BPI/REX/Shutterstock

These are still early days but already there is the unmistakable feeling Manchester United are on their way back and anxious to make up for lost time. They have suffered more in the last few years than they will probably wish to remember but José Mourinho could be seen saluting the crowd in triumph after this victory. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has two more goals for his personal collection while Paul Pogba, the world’s most expensive footballer, came out of his homecoming with a sunrise of a smile.

The only disappointment, perhaps, was that Ibrahimovic could not mark his first appearance at his new ground by taking the matchball home as a souvenir of a hat-trick, and there was a moment after the game when he playfully chastised Pogba for shooting, rather than passing, during a late attack. That, however, was only a fleeting source of regret bearing in mind the buoyant mood inside the stadium and renewed sense of optimism.

Pogba showed, in flashes, why United have invested so much in shaping the team around him. Ibrahimovic has scored three times in his first two Premier League games and it says something for Mourinho’s rebuilding that Henrikh Mkhitaryan, another of the club’s summer recruits, was restricted to a late substitute’s appearance, with Michael Carrick, Phil Jones and Memphis Depay among those not even on the bench. Mourinho seemed genuinely pained when he spoke of the players who spent the night “in their nice Paul Smith suits rather than tracksuits”.

More than anything there was the sense of more to come. A new team are taking shape, featuring half a dozen six-footers, and Mourinho made the point there was still plenty of room for improvement. The partnership between Wayne Rooney and Ibrahimovic, for instance, can still be better even if they did combine for the Swede’s opening goal. Anthony Martial has started the season slowly and Pogba, as Mourinho explained, was not at the point of optimum fitness even if there were times when the £89m signing showed a mixture of speed, balance and control that had Old Trafford humming its approval.

After an amusingly bad first touch Pogba looked as if he had been here years – which, in one sense, was absolutely the case – while Ibrahimovic supplied another clear reminder United have recruited a striker who is capable of outdoing some of the finest central defenders in England’s top division.

Wes Morgan can testify for Ibrahimovic’s upper body strength, competitive instincts and prodigious heading ability after the winning goalin the Community Shield and now it was José Fonte’s turn to feel the force. Ibrahimovic’s second goal was a penalty, early in the second half, but his first was another demonstration of his penalty-box menace. Rooney’s cross came from the right and Ibrahimovic, at 6ft 5in, was higher, stronger and more decisive in his leap than Fonte, directing an expertly angled header into the corner of Fraser Forster’s goal.

United’s improvement is clear already, given they were facing a Southampton side who had won 1-0 on their last two visits to Old Trafford and aiming to become the only team other than Manchester City to win here three times in a row in thePremier League era.

Claude Puel had started with an adventurous lineup, with Nathan Redmond and Shane Long in attack, and Dusan Tadic operating at the front of a midfield diamond. Their preparations were disrupted by an early injury to Oriol Romeu but they held their own early on and threatened sporadically throughout.

At other times they looked lightweight in attack while, for the home side, it was clear to see this was a Mourinho team rather than one operating to Louis van Gaal’s rigid tactics. United moved the ball with the kind of urgency that was not always apparent under their previous manager. Their full-backs were given more licence to go forward and it was from one of those attacks that Luke Shaw advanced into a position where Jordy Clasie, Romeu’s replacement, flicked out his foot to clip him for the penalty. Ibrahimovic took the ball – no arguments about who was United’s new penalty-taker – and rifled his shot to Forster’s right.

Shortly before, Tadic had turned a header past David de Gea only for the goal to be disallowed because one of the assistant referees had raised his flag. Puel did not complain too vociferously about either decision but Southampton had been entitled to be aggrieved about the penalty and, at 2-0, the home side could start to relax, playing with greater exuberance on the counterattack.

Mourinho had said Pogba would not last the entire match but the midfielder did stay on until the end. Marouane Fellaini has been rejuvenated so far under Mourinho and, continuing the theme of newfound unity, Juan Mata was warmly embraced by his manager when Mkhitaryan replaced him for the last quarter of an hour.

Ibrahimovic was offside when Antonio Valencia clipped a cross to him at the far post and Pogba drilled a late chance past the post. “You should have passed,” Ibrahimovic pointed out to his team-mate, with mock anger. United had made it back-to-back victories and Old Trafford felt like a happy place.