Giggs warns Mourinho: United fans want title win with style

Former Manchester United star Ryan Giggs has told Jose Mourinho that fans will expect him to deliver the Premier League title by playing stylish football.

Mourinho was appointed as manager in May after Louis van Gaal was sacked, with an FA Cup triumph not enough to save his job following inconsistent league form and huge criticism from supporters over the team’s style.

United made it two wins from two in the top flight this season with a 2-0 victory over Southampton at Old Trafford on Friday, courtesy of two goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

But while Giggs is confident that Mourinho is the right man to take the 20-time champions back to the top of English football, he has warned that fans will not accept another campaign of turgid performances.

“The fans want to see them winning games obviously, but United fans demand attractive football and that’s been the complaint over the last three years since Sir Alex [Ferguson] has retired,” Giggs, who left his position as assistant coach shortly after Mourinho’s arrival, told Sky Sports. 

“But we need to be fighting for titles and I think they’ve got a good chance this year, I really do.

“I think they would [take 1-0 wins and the title], but you can still have both and United fans are greedy. As a fan, I’m greedy and I want both. I want to win games but I want to do it in an attractive manner.”

Ibrahimovic’s double against Southampton took his tally to four goals in three competitive games for United, following his winner in the Community Shield clash against Leicester City and his strike in last week’s 3-1 win over Bournemouth.

Giggs has hailed Ibrahimovic’s professional approach and believes the veteran striker could offer the kind of consistent goal threat to keep United in a title fight.

“When United signed Ibrahimovic, we were talking about the quality that he brings, the hold-up play, the flicks but we didn’t talk about these sort of headed goals, these typical English centre-forward goals and he’s scored two of them already. It’s a brilliant asset to have,” he said.

“Eric [Cantona] was a brilliant, brilliant professional and from what I hear of Ibrahimovic, he’s the same. You get this image of him that he’s arrogant and everything looks easy but he doesn’t play at the top for his amount of time without being a professional and without doing things right.

“You can see in the post-match interview with [Paul] Pogba, they’re having a laugh and the spirit is there and you don’t win anything without team spirit.

“If you’re going to win the league you need someone who’s going to score goals and he might be the one to provide the goals.”