Barcelona striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic says he is not worried by his recent goal drought.
Ibrahimovic enjoyed an impressive start to his Barca career following his summer switch from Inter, and by Christmas he had already notched 11 goals in La Liga.
However, since scoring the only goal in Barca’s derby win over Espanyol on December 12, the Ibrahimovic has only netted once, which was during the Copa del Rey defeat to Sevilla at the start of January.
Nonetheless, Ibrahimovic is unconcerned and insists he is still contributing to his team’s success in other ways.
“I’m not worried,” he told El Periodico de Catalunya. “This has happened to me other times. In my first year at Ajax, I started very well, then things went bad, then well again… a rollercoaster.
“It’s normal, because you have to adapt to many things and in very little time. The same thing happened when I arrived at Juventus and at Inter, a season with ups and downs.
“Obviously, being the No. 9 and a centre-forward in a team like Barcelona, it’s important to score goals, but that’s not everything – at least not for me.
“If you participate in the play and set up team-mates, I feel just as good. An assist is like a goal, because you are making a team-mate happy, and this is as important for me as scoring.
“I’m not worried about this poor run because the goals will end up coming. If you play well, you help the team. If you create chances, you score.”
Reflecting on his first six months with the Catalan club, Ibrahimovic said: “My family and I have adapted well. I’m happy here. We’ve picked up three titles in six months, we are at the top of the table and we haven’t lost in the league.
“The team have won everything and want to continue like that. It’s impressive. I only regret what happened to us in the Copa del Rey. I think we deserved to go through because Sevilla are not better than us, but in football these things happen.”
