Mata: We Must Take Advantage Of Zlatan

Juan Mata has revealed the Manchester United players are working hard to utilise Zlatan Ibrahimovic's strengths, after the Swede hit his sixth goal of the season on Thursday night.

The Swedish striker notched the only goal in the Europa League win over Zorya Luhansk at Old Trafford, latching onto Wayne Rooney’s mishit shot to calmly head past the goalkeeper at the back post.

Ibrahimovic, who turns 35 on Monday, is proving himself to be a highly effective target man for the Reds based on his first 10 appearances with the club. However, Mata still feels the players can make more of his talents, particularly when the towering number nine drops into a deeper position.

“We know that when Zlatan is playing up front, he comes to create great assists and great passes,” the Spaniard told MUTV on Wednesday night. “We have to run behind him because we need depth in the game.

We tried to do that in the first and second half. He gives a lot as a striker and he gives a lot when he comes to play as a midfielder as well. We have to take advantage of that.”

Jose Mourinho made four changes for the match against Zorya but interestingly stuck with the same front four – Lingard, Mata, Rashford, Ibrahimovic – that started against Leicester City on Saturday.

That group of players are able to interchange positions quite freely and Mata is embracing the fluidity. “Yeah, I felt good, I enjoyed being on the pitch tonight,” Juan told us. “It is good to play with players like them, and with Paul [Pogba] coming forward as well with quick football. We tried to do that because that is the way we can play with this team and we can succeed with this.”

Thursday’s win over Zorya was particularly important following the 1-0 defeat at Feyenoord in Group A earlier in September and Mata is now looking forward to Sunday’s Premier League return against Stoke City, the third match in a row at Old Trafford. “This was a key win,” he explained after the final whistle.

“After losing in Holland, we needed to win tonight and now we can look forward to Sunday’s match against Stoke. After the bad week, we knew that we had three games at Old Trafford. We have won two of them and now we are really focused on winning the last one before the international break.”