Zlatan Ibrahimovic's first-half display for Manchester United was his career's 'worst', says Jamie Carragher

The Sky Sports pundit described both Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba as 'non-existent' in the opening 45 minutes of United's EFL Cup fourth round win

Ibrahimovic was poor in the opening 45 minutes at Old Trafford (Getty)

Jamie Carragher panned Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s first-half performance during Wednesday night’s Manchester derby as one of the worst of his career.

The Manchester United striker, who has scored just once in his last nine games, went on to set up Juan Mata’s decisive strike in a 1-0 EFL Cup fourth round win over Manchester City.

Despite hitting four goals in his first three games for the club earlier this season, Ibrahimovic’s form has drastically tailed off, leading to some questioning his place in Jose Mourinho’s side.

Ibrahimovic cut a frustrated figure during the first half at Old Trafford on Wednesday and Carragher, who was analysing the match for Sky Sports, ranked it as one of his worst displays.

“I don’t think Zlatan Ibrahimovic has probably had a worse 45 minutes than that in his career,” the former Liverpool defender said at half-time.

“He was getting wound up by [City]. Jose Mourinho has been getting a lot of stick in the last few weeks, the manager always does, but we’re talking about a fella last season who got 50 goals.”

Carragher went on to also criticise Paul Pogba’s first-half performance, labelling both him and Ibrahimovic as “non-existent”.

“Pogba the most expensive player in the world," he said. "If you’ve cost that much money you’ve got to decide big game and do things in the big games.

“It’s non-existent and they’re not playing Man City at home… they’re playing Man City reserves. Let’s be honest about it.

“The game’s there for Manchester United to win and those two players have been non-existent in these last few weeks and they’ve got to produce a far lot more.”