West Brom vs Manchester United: Jose Mourinho hails 'superman' Zlatan Ibrahimovic and his amazing mentality

Mourinho believes Ibrahimovic came to the Premier League for the right reasons and is delighted to see him continue to push himself at the age of 35

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been lauded as a 'superman' by Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho (Getty)

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's startling introduction to life in the Premier League is no surprise to Jose Mourinho who brought the talismanic Swede to Old Trafford knowing full well he could blow the division aside.

Only Ruud van Nistelrooy (12) has scored more goals in his first 16 Premier League appearances for Manchester United than Ibrahimovic, whose 11 goals tie him level with Robin van Persie and Andy Cole.

"I was expecting that because I knew the reasons why he was coming. He was not coming for the wrong reasons, he was not coming for the money, he was not coming for the prestige, he was coming to enjoy his football and to play in the best league in the world," Mourinho enthused.

"He is doing amazingly well but even in the period where he was not scoring goals he was important to us for many more reasons than goals.

"In the last two matches he has scored three goals which have earned six points.

"I'm so pleased for him. He is the kind of player who doesn't need to prove anything to anyone but when he decided to come to England for the last period of his career - to the most difficult championship in the world - I think he proved he is a superman in his mentality.

"What he is doing at 35 is a dream for every striker of 25 in the Premier League.

"I need to give him a rest. Now we have a little rest for the first time. It is not just him but everybody."

Asked about whether he expected to play Ibrahimovic as much as he has, Mourinho added: "I was expecting to give him a different situation in the Europa League but we lost the first match in Feyenoord and then every match became important - even the last one when we needed a point to qualify.

"We communicate ideas about his situation and his feelings, and right now he is feeling great."

Mourinho was pleased with the way his United side performed against West Brom (Getty)

"I have been very lucky to work with lots of players with enthusiasm. I've had players in the last phase of their careers at 35, 36, 37 and they were still magnificent in their attitude but he's just not a normal player, he is not playing in a position where he can hide a little bit. Amazing central defenders with experience can play until they are older but a striker. . . you cannot hide."

United midfielder Jesse Lingard is aware of Ibrahimovic's worth to United: "He is a great character, very bubbly around the changing room and helps the young lads. His confidence is flowing now and the games are coming think and fast to add to his tally. We are all finding our rhythm now, everyone is gelling together."

Lingard believes Ibrahimovic is helping the rest of the team to gel together (Getty)

Meanwhile, West Brom boss Tony Pulis bristled at the mention of the yellow card given to Ibrahimovic for an ugly shoulder charge on Craig Dawson midway through the first half. He was asked about an altercation in the second half between Marcos Rojo and Salomon Rondon and added: "Are you just going to mention ours? What about Zlatan's challenge. That’s a worse one than the other one. I'm not going to comment. Ask the 28,000 what they thought of it."

Mourinho thought the three bookings handed out by Anthony Taylor for those two incidents was fair: "I think the referee did fine. The game was correct, the game was physical…big strong guys. They (West Brom) are very physical, we are not so physical. We tried to cope with that. Why a red card to Rondon? I agree with a yellow card and go again. Sometimes you look for decisions but sometimes it is better for the referee to keep control of the game and speak with the players. The game is eleven v eleven."