Zlatan Ibrahimovic has already become Manchester United’s spiritual leader

There was a lot to be drawn from Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s penalty in Manchester United’s win over Southampton on Friday night. With two natural spot-kick takers on the pitch, one of them the club captain, the Swede claimed the ball for himself almost as soon as Luke Shaw was felled inside the box, converting with sheer self-assurance.

Fundamentally, it was only the second goal in a fairly routine 2-0 victory. But there was a certain symbolism to the moment. It illustrated how in a very short space of time Ibrahimovic has become the spiritual leader of his new club. Man Utd are now in the grip of their new number nine.

He’s the only leading the line, taking the penalties and generally setting the tone for what will surely be a Premier League title challenge. Rooney might have the armband wrapped around his bicep, but Ibrahimovic is Jose Mourinho’s lieutenant on the pitch.

It wasn’t almost certain to be this way, despite the 35-year-old’s glittering career, undoubted ability and dominating character. He tends to command attention wherever he goes, whatever he does, but nonetheless, there were questions asked of Ibrahimovic ahead of his first Premier League season.

Well into the twilight of his career, it was pondered whether Ibrahimovic would have the physicality to handle the gruelling nature of the English game. His thumping header under pressure from about three opposition defenders on Friday answered that particular question. His medical - in which he broke United’s power records - also offered a emphatic rebuttal over suggestions of his diminishing athleticism.

So impressive has Ibrahimovic been, there is already talk of extending his contract by another year, with Mourinho stating that the striker will be at Old Trafford for at least two years. That should be enough time for him to make a lasting impression on a club that has already taken to his Scandinavian charm.

“He is very good in the air but he is very good with his feet,” Mourinho gushed about the former Barcelona and Paris Saint-German forward after the win over Southampton. “He holds the ball better than anyone. When he drops back he gives the team another option, to keep possession of the ball. I am very happy with his performance.”

It can be easy to get caught up in the notion of who Ibrahimovic is as a caricature rather than what he truly is as a player. Social media has turned him into something of a carton character in recent years (Nike literally did this once for a promotion of theirs) with his quotes shaped into Chuck Norris-style memes. “Zlatan once killed two stones with one bird,” “Zlatan doesn’t play football, football plays Zlatan” - that kind of thing.

He is painted as an individual who revels in his individualism, but that does a disservice to his true nature. At every club he was ever been at, he has been a figurehead, not just to boost his own ego and personal impressions of grandeur, but to give others someone to bounce off as well.

At Man Utd he has become a mentor to Pogba within just a few days of the Frenchman’s signing, with Ibrahimovic already taking Marcus Rashford under his tattooed wing. It’s difficult to determine Rooney’s true dressing room character, but on the pitch and through the media Ibrahimovic is the one United’s youngsters now look to.

His Premier League career certainly won’t be defined by what has happened this early in the season, but up to this point Ibrahimovic has been everything Man Utd thought he would be and more. Many predicted he would succeed in England, but few expected him to thrive to such an extent. They knew he would become the face of the club peering out from billboards all over the world, but that didn’t necessarily mean he would become United’s leader on the pitch.

He is now the embodiment of the winning mentality Mourinho spoke of instilling at Old Trafford this season. “We need to get used to winning because the mental part is always important as well as the physical part,” the striker reasoned after the win over Southampton. Man Utd have adapted to Ibrahimovic as much as Ibrahimovic has adapted to Man Utd.