Football
Mark Ogden, Senior Writer, ESPN FC 7y

Zlatan Ibrahimovic prefers Premier League title over personal accolades

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has said he would trade more than half of his 14 Premier League goals this season for a place at the top of the table with Manchester United.

Ibrahimovic, a free transfer signing from Paris Saint-Germain last summer, moved level with Diego Costa and Alexis Sanchez in the race for the Premier League's Golden Boot by scoring a late equaliser for United in Sunday's 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Old Trafford.

The Swede's header extended United's unbeaten run to 16 games in all competitions, but Jose Mourinho's team remain in sixth position, 12 points adrift of leaders Chelsea, ahead of Saturday's trip to Stoke City.

"It [the Golden Boot] is not my focus," Ibrahimovic said. "Of course, if I can continue to score goals to help my team great, I am doing it and will do it.

"But trust me, I prefer to win the Premier League. The collective trophies mean more than any individual ones because seeing me winning something and not my teammates is not the way I want it.

"I'd prefer to win the trophy and then the individual one comes by itself. That's a second objective, it's not my main target.

"I'm scoring, yes, but if I could be first in the table and have five goals and the media attacking me, saying 'He can't do it in the Premier League,' I'd prefer to have it like that. Because it's all about winning.

"Everybody will talk about you winning and I'm here to win, I want to win.

"If I'd score three or four goals, but I'm first in the competition, that would have been a nice feeling -- because you're first.

"Then people would say something else. 'He should score more.' There's always something to say. Because when you're on top of the game, people try to find holes in your game. But we're working hard."

With United not due to face a team currently in the top four until Chelsea visit Old Trafford in April, Mourinho's team have the opportunity close the gap on the leaders and climb into the Champions League places in the weeks ahead.

But despite the draw against Liverpool, which ended United's nine-game winning streak, Ibrahimovic believes the team are capable of mounting a challenge.

"Imagine if we'd got those points [from earlier draws], where we'd be now?" Ibrahimovic said. "It'd be a big difference.

"But, OK, we're paying for it. We had a gap where there was a distance to the top five but now we're closer.

"From second to us is five points, Chelsea is 12. We are there, we just wait for the other ones to do mistakes.

"If we could have won against Liverpool, it'd have been a fantastic result but we take the draw and let's see what the other teams do.

"Hopefully they make mistakes and have their own dip because we had our dips. We just need to win and keep going like we're doing, we've got great confidence."

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