Zlatan Ibrahimovic has admitted Manchester United must be more ruthless in the Premier League – before it is too late.
United have fallen 13 points behind leaders Chelsea and nine points off fourth spot after a poor run that has included six draws in their last eight Premier League games.
Jose Mourinho’s side, currently sixth, host fifth-placed Tottenham at Old Trafford on Sunday in what has become a must-win game if they are to have any realistic chance of a top-four finish.
United have drawn their last four Premier League games at home, which has left them playing catch-up on the leading pack ahead of them.
Mourinho’s side have scored just 19 goals in the Premier League this season, fewer than West Brom and Crystal Palace, their failure to find the back of the net costing them dearly.
And Ibrahimovic, who has delivered with seven goals in his last six games in all competitions, admitted United must get their act together in the Premier League and put together a winning run.
“We want to kill every game we play,” said Ibrahimovic. “But as long as you create the chances, you’ll score.
“But you also need to get the three points. That’s more important, but you can get the three points by winning 1-0, not only 4-0.
“We’ve created many chances, but you need to close the game out.
“It hasn’t happened yet, but we’re working hard. We’ve learned now that we have to score more than one goal to get the three points.
“I think we’re performing very good and the team has got a good balance.
“We’ve had some unlucky games, some games we made simple mistakes to concede a goal, but most of our game is good.
“So if we can just get a couple of wins in a row, it would give us even more confidence.”
Mourinho, who has bemoaned United’s failure to turn a succession of dominant displays into victories, acknowledged the importance of beating Spurs to ensure his side do not lose further ground on the teams above them.
“It’s always important,” said. “It’s always important to win.
“When we played Arsenal, it was important to win. We played to win, we deserved to win, but we didn’t win.
“So it’s always important. We played against Everton, we had one point more than Everton. It was important to win and increase that gap to four points.
“We played to win, we deserved to win, but we didn’t win.
“Every game is important to win, so against Tottenham we’re going to try to play.
“We’re going to try and deserve [victory] and we’re going to try to win.”
United showed they can kill off opponents by beating Zorya Luhansk 2-0 in Odessa on Thursday to advance to the last 32 of the Eurpoa League, a quality Mourinho conceded they must now show domestically.
“Look, if you want to compare this match with the Everton match, we can,” said Mourinho.
“We were 1-0 up at Everton, in complete control, Ander Herrera hit the post, no 2-0. They go there in the last minute, goal.
“Here we were leading 1-0, we go there in the last 10 minutes, we score the second goal, game over.
“We’re not scoring enough goals for the football we play.
“When we play against other teams in the Premier League, normally the opposing goalkeepers are the man of the match. They save everything.
“Goals make a huge difference, so we need to score more goals.”