United Can Handle Congested Fixture List

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has shrugged off talk of collective tiredness at Manchester United and says the amount of matches he has personally played this season is nothing out of the ordinary.

The Reds won the EFL Cup late last month and are still involved in three other competitions, with a two-legged tie against FC Rostov set to sandwich a trip to Chelsea in the Emirates FA quarter-final.

There is also the Premier League and Ibrahimovic states United's busy fixture list is not to blame for Saturday's frustrating 1-1 draw against Bournemouth at Old Trafford.

"When you don’t win games, you try to find a lot of excuses," the striker says. "If we had won easily, nobody would have even asked if we play a lot of games, if we are tired or if we are not playing well.

"It’s like the cup final: we didn’t play well but we won. When you win it covers the things you want to ask, but we play a lot of games and I love to play football. It’s my passion.

"Every game we play, I enjoy them. It is a lot of games but it is not an excuse because I have done this for 15 years, and I have always played 50 to 70 games a year."

United were left to rue a missed opportunity to gain points on the other top-four rivals following the draw at Old Trafford, as a Joshua King penalty cancelled out Marcos Rojo’s opener.

Ibrahimovic, who missed a second-half spot-kick of his own, accepts personal responsibility for the result but believes the Reds just need to keep going.

"I think the opportunity will come," he explains. "We are there, we just need to keep going and while we are there, I think we can stay there," he concluded.

"Last week we had a fantastic week. It [the dropped points] could be the effect of that. Maybe we became too confident, I don’t know, but like I say, I take responsibility, I missed and I take the blame."