Zlatan fears Ten Hag is not the right man for Man Utd – ‘He is living two different situations’

Former Manchester United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is concerned that Erik ten Hag doesn’t have the necessary experience to handle the “big stars” at Old Trafford.

The Red Devils have made a terrible start to the new Premier League season with Ten Hag’s side losing four of their opening seven league matches for the first time since 1989-90, when Sir Alex Ferguson was reportedly one game from being sacked.

Ten Hag has had a number of off-field issues to deal with over the past couple of months with Jadon Sancho currently training away from the first-team squad after falling out with the Dutchman, while Antony was given a leave of absence to address allegations made against him of violence towards women.

The Man Utd boss – who oversaw a promising first season at Old Trafford with silverware and a top-four finish – has come under fire for the first time as the Red Devils manager and Ibrahimovic has given his views on Ten Hag.

Speaking to Piers Morgan for his TalkTV show, Ibrahimovic said: “Coming from Ajax to United as he did is a big difference — I have been in both clubs. You have a different kind of discipline.

“Ajax is a talented club. 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.

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“The players there are supposed to be big stars. I don’t think you give the same treatment.

“How much time do you give a coach? 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.”

Ibrahimovic added: “United has to win, they have to win every title they play for. 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 Sancho and Cristiano, I don’t know.

“When things are good, there are still errors and problems, but you don’t see it because we are winning.”