Swedish prolific footballer, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has shared success tips with the embattled Paul Pogba whose performance against Liverpool earned him scathing criticisms.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba
Manchester United striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, has warned his team-mate Paul Pogba, that he must learn how to cope with pressure, if he wants to be one of the best.
Pogba endured a miserable afternoon on Sunday, as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Liverpool at Old Trafford. The France midfielder failed to deliver in one of the season’s big games and even gave away a penalty.
“Pressure is something I enjoy,” Ibrahimovic said.
“I don’t know Paul personally to be able to answer that for him. But I think he likes it also because, without pressure, we would not be on our toes at the top level.
“If you want to play at the top, pressure is 24 hours, and if you play well or better the pressure becomes even greater.
“So it’s something that we learn from and something we have to handle because we belong to the top, Paul belongs to the top absolutely and the pressure will be there.”
Before the game, Pogba became the first Premier League footballer to get his own Twitter emoji and there were criticisms afterward that he was being carried away.
When asked if the Twitter emoji adverts heaped too much pressure on Pogba, Ibrahimovic said: “I think football is like that today. With the social media, the media building up the game.
“When I started to play football there was no social media, none of these things. But it’s part of the game now. What is too much, what is too less? We don’t know. We just follow the game. We are professional, we train like always, try to do our best every game.
“For Paul (on Sunday) the game was different. It was a dirty game, in the way we had to play more direct, by jumping over the midfield because the pressure Liverpool put on us was hard.
“It was difficult. The first game against them was the same. The guys told me every game we play against Liverpool looks like this.”