Manchester United’s 35-year-olds Crucial To Success

Two 35-year-olds have been a major part of Manchester United’s upturn in form, which has seen Jose Mourinho’s side win four straight games and go unbeaten in 10 overall.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been an immediate success since his summer arrival. The Swedish striker has scored 14 goals, including five in his last five Premier League games.

“Teddy [Sheringham] was still playing at 40 and still scoring goals,” says David May, the former United defender David May covers the club for MUTV. “Teddy was never blessed with pace and nor is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, so I don’t see why he can’t continue playing. As long as he gets service, he will always score goals.

“It’s probably not the example that United fans want to hear, but it’s like Ian Rush with goalscoring,” continues May. “He scored so many goals, season after season because he just knew, through instinct, where the defenders were and where the ball was going to end up.”

Ibrahimovic was brought to Old Trafford to score goals, but the talisman in attack also provides a physical threat in a United side that isn’t otherwise noted for that trait. Mourinho believes that speed triumphs over muscle for the modern player, but Ibrahimovic’s steel is welcomed by his teammates and fans alike.

“Zlatan made a challenge on a West Brom centre-half where he possibly could have been sent off,” says May. “But he didn’t leap with his elbow out or intent to hurt. He got away with it, but the defender must have been wondering what had hit him. He’d gone for a ball that was 65 percent in his favour, but Zlatan still went for it.

“I was a defender and I played against some of the best attackers in football and I’d say that 98 percent of them wouldn’t have gone for that ball,” continues May. “He was brave to do that, but I’ve never seen someone play upfront on his own and run the line like Zlatan does. He’s so good that he ties two central defenders down in each game. He bullies them, he sends out a message as if to say: ‘Bring it on!’ He’s not arrogant like some say, he’s just very confident and has enough ability to trust his talent and his judgment.”

May has also been impressed with Michael Carrick, who scarcely featured at the start of the season but has since become a first-choice starter again. The midfielder has played 433 games since joining United from Tottenham in 2006 and, in January, will likely overtake Gary Pallister to move into the club’s top 20 appearance makers of all-time.

“Michael is another not blessed with pace, nor is he a box-to-box midfielder but, like Ryan Giggs and Teddy, he’s found a way of playing which suits him,” says May. “He enables the others around him to be better players, to attack. His presence reassures them; his simplicity is so constructive to United doing well.

“Michael has got eyes in the back of his head,” continues May. “I watch him every game and I think, where on earth has he seen that pass from, because he hasn’t looked for it. He just knows and you can’t teach that. Not only can he see which pass needs making ahead of others, he makes the pass too.”

May laughs as he says that Carrick is actually getting better but it hasn’t always been the case that the veteran was universally popular.

“There was a period around 2010 when [Carrick] received a lot of stick from United fans but every player who has ever played with Michael says he’s unbelievable,” says May. “Are they all wrong? Why do they all pick him out, the people who see him every day?”

The isolated criticism of Carrick was partly justified, though, because he wasn’t playing well at the time, albeit in part because he was carrying an Achilles injury. It was a long way from his career high of winning the Champions League in 2008, of which he told me in an interview: “The feeling that night was something that I’ve never had before in my life; that two minutes on the pitch just after we’d won it.”

Last season, when he added the FA Cup to a glittering collection of silverware won, Carrick thought he’d be leaving United had Louis van Gaal stayed as manager. But Mourinho sanctioned a new contract and, while he too overlooked the player at the start of the season, he doesn’t now.

“[Carrick] affords [Paul] Pogba and [Ander] Herrera the freedom to express themselves,” says May. “He conducts the orchestra by ordering players about and he’s a reason why Herrera is getting so much praise and Pogba too.”

Few players used to reach the age 35 and still be at the top level, let alone play well at that age.

“There have been changes with sports science and lifestyle,” explains May. “Michael Carrick won’t be having 10 pints of beer over a weekend like I and other players did. We had a dietician at United but the science was nowhere what it is now. Our body fat was measured by calipers, which pinched the skin. We’d all cheer if someone was a bit on the heavy side; something Roy Keane never got as he was always the skinniest.

“The players now have ice baths to aid recovery,” continues May. “The only ice baths we had were at Barnsley away and it was because there was no hot water. They’re playing on better pitches, being better looked after.”

Van Gaal put so much trust into sports science that he’d rest players if they were in what he called the “red zone.” The same rules don’t apply to Ibrahimovic, who loves playing 90 minutes every game in a zone of his own, just as the fans love watching him score winning goals, while Carrick keeps things ticking further back.