Manchester United hero Zlatan Ibrahimovic has piled pressure on Red Devils manager Erik ten Hag by suggesting he may be running out of time under the club’s Glazer family owners. The northwest giants have endured a dismal start to the season and are 10th in the Premier League table after losing four of their first seven matches.
“How much time do you give a coach?” the former striker said on Piers Morgan Uncensored, which is due to air on Thursday evening. “It depends on the owners, what they want. But if you listen to the fans, you don’t have a lot of time because they want to win, and I understand them because they are used to winning and they want to still win.”
United were defeated by Tottenham in August either side of victories over Wolves and Nottingham Forest, with their form nosediving in September. Despite overcoming Burnley last month, the Red Devils were defeated by Arsenal, Brighton and Crystal Palace, with Bayern Munich also coming out on top in their Champions League opener.
United have already been cut seven points adrift of fourth-place Liverpool, with Ten Hag facing his most difficult spell since taking the top job at Old Trafford last year. And Ibrahimovic has called into question the suitability of the ex-Ajax boss to manage the 13-time Premier League champions.
“Ajax is a talented club,” the Swede continued. “They have the best talents in the club. They don’t have big stars. What is the experience of this coach? Young talents, he comes to United, it is a different mentality. The players there are supposed to be big stars. I don’t think you give the same treatment.”
And he added: “United has to win, they have to win every title they play. Now they are being dominated by neighbours Manchester City and it’s a totally different situation there.
“Everybody has a responsibility to fulfil the demands. You need to find the right path again and to push for that. You need a plan, you need a project to follow. It feels like you follow a project plan and then it goes wild in a moment because of the results.
“Either you believe in it or you don’t believe in it. But with the situation of the coach, I think he is living two different situations now. Then obviously what happened with [Jadon] Sancho and Cristiano [Ronaldo, I don’t know. When things are good, there are still errors and problems, but you don’t see it because we are winning.”
