Watch out for bad-boy Swede, warns Limpar

ARSENAL'S Champions League credentials could face a severe test from Ajax's Zlatan Ibrahimovic tonight - a striker who can "tear up the best defences in the world", according to former Highbury favourite Anders Limpar.

The assertion by Limpar that his fellow Swede has the skill to become twice the player he ever was should provide a sobering thought for those Arsenal fans with memories of Limpar's own mesmeric touches.

"Skill-wise, I'm not even halfway up the ladder compared with Zlatan," Limpar told Standard Sport. "He does things on the pitch which I never dreamt of doing, he's tremendous and now his talent is showing through."

Ibrahimovic scored one of Ajax's goals in the 2-1 win over Group B rivals Roma prior to the Champions League winter break.

It was his fifth goal in seven European matches this season and evidence that the spiky 21-year-old is finally shedding his bad-boy image and realising the potential that stirred Arsene Wenger's interest in him before he left Malmo for Ajax in the summer of 2001.

"He has this creative Yugoslav technique and a strong personality," said Wenger. "I'm impressed by him. He has the reactions of a classy player and he's a team player. We had him here on trial before he went to Ajax and he's progressed well."

Ibrahimovic's abrasive approach saw him banned for five matches for elbowing an opponent in October 2001, but Ibrahimovic ended last season scoring the winner in the Dutch Cup Final against Utrecht to clinch the double for Ronald Koeman's side.

Speaking from his native Stockholm, Limpar, now 37, said: " Ibrahimovic has had some bad criticism in Sweden for not scoring for the national team and Ajax, and he's a wild boy - in fact he's a bit like Duncan Ferguson when it comes to incidents outside of football.

"But now he has found his place and is great to watch."

One of his off-field escapades was a trip into the heart of Malmo's redlight district where he pretended to be a police officer and, together with a friend, tried to arrest a kerb crawler.

Ibrahimovic, the son of a Bosnian father and Croatian mother, has also fallen foul of authority at club level.

After a series of incidents with Malmo, involving bust-ups with the team's goalkeepers, last year he even fell out with Koeman, who was so unhappy with his attitude he threw him out of a training session.

But since then he has fought his way back into the team and Limpar is convinced Arsenal should watch out.

"Everybody should be afraid of him - he can tear up the best defences in the world, like Roma's and they're not schoolboys. Of course, they have to watch him. It doesn't matter if your name is Sol Campbell or Fabio Cannavaro or whoever, he's going to be there, looking to score goals.

"Ibrahimovic has found his role, which is all due to Koeman, who has found a place for him." Recently retired from playing Swedish Second Division football with Brommapojkarna, Limpar now coaches the club's under-17 side while also running his sports bar in Stockholm - the appropriately named Limp Bar.

He watches Arsenal games on television and believes the Gunners have suffered from being without their own Swedish matchwinner, Freddie Ljungberg, who has been sidelined by a virus and Achilles injury for two months.

"Freddie is Arsenal in a way - they take Freddie out and they're not as good," he said. "He is the most intelligent player at Arsenal, more even than Thierry Henry - he knows his limitations. He only does things he is good at.

He never tries to take players on and loses the ball, because he can't do that. Freddie just makes great runs and scores goals, which is his biggest asset."

Ljungberg's success at Highbury is due, says Limpar, to Wenger being able to bring the best out of the Arsenal players.

While his relationship with his own manager at Arsenal, George Graham, was not the happiest - "I had George Graham who never praised me for four years" - Ljungberg is benefiting from working with " probably the best manager in the world".

"He's the Maradona of managers in my opinion," said Limpar. "You can see he's using every player to his full extent. They know how to cover every single inch of the field and they're successful and have great players."

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