Zlatan Ibrahimovic has said that Jose Mourinho was right to admonish his attacking players for a lack of ruthlessness in front of goal, but Manchester United’s mercurial Swedish striker also conceded that he was feeling the fatigue of a long season.

The 35-year-old has played in 44 games for United this season and is the team’s top goalscorer with 28 but was one of a number who failed to take chances against Anderlecht in the Europa League quarter-final first leg in Brussels on Thursday. Ibrahimovic will be a key figure when United try on Sunday to inflict on Chelsea only their fifth league defeat of the season, with just five victories required for Antonio Conte’s team to seal the title.

After the draw with Anderlecht, in which the home side equalised in the 87th minute Mourinho said that United’s defensive players had a right to be “upset” with their attacking counterparts. “They have to kill the game and they didn’t,” he said.

Speaking in the aftermath of that draw, Ibrahimovic was asked whether Mourinho was right to call out his attacking players publicly for their shortcomings. “Absolutely,” Ibrahimovic said. “I think he is right in this matter because today I wasn't feeling good in the sense of I was feeling tired. But it is not an excuse because I still have to do well, I still have to do much more and much better than I did today. I speak for myself and [Anderlecht] was not a good performance.