Five Truths: Zlatan Ibrahimovic needs help, Paul Pogba lacks goals, where is the real Harry Kane?

It’s hard to knock Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s belief that United can win three trophies this season when he puts in match-winning performances like he did against Saint-Etienne. Once again, the big Swede was the difference at Old Trafford – it was a fortuitous hat-trick, but nonetheless, it gave United a valuable advantage going into the second leg.

With 23 goals in all competitions this season, Ibrahimovic is well on course to reach the 30-mark at United, something last achieved at United by Robin van Persie in their title-winning 2012/13 season. But it’s the gap to United’s second top goalscorer – Juan Mata with nine – which is most alarming. And it’s a factor which needs to improve if United are 50-odd games deep in the latter stages of both the FA Cup and Europa League.

There’s plenty of football before we can talk about more finals for United though, but who knows – maybe Ibrahimovic really can steer them to three cup wins almost single-handedly.

Will the real Harry Kane please stand up?

Tottenham’s recent malaise has been attributed to a variety of factors. ‘They’ve forgotten how to press’, ‘they desperately miss Danny Rose’, ‘Moussa Sissoko is the worst £30m signing in history’. All those points have merit, but they pale in significance to Harry Kane’s dip in form.

Since his hat-trick in the 4-0 destruction of West Brom, Kane has failed to score from open play. That’s the five straight games, with just one penalty (versus Middlesbrough) to show for his efforts. More alarmingly, he has been anonymous. Sure, he needs more support – Pochettino tried to address this by switching to a three-man defence in the second half in Belgium – but he looks shorn of his usual spark. Has the burden of carrying the Spurs attack finally caught up with him?

The bragging rights in the Pogba household certainly belong to Paul after another impressive performance at Old Trafford, but again one thing was missing from the record signing’s showing – a goal.

The opportunity came when Daley Blind whipped a free-kick right onto his head in the second half, but somehow his effort came back off the crossbar.

That is now eight times the France international has seen an effort come back off the woodwork. Some would say this is simply Lady Luck taking a disliking to the 23-year-old, but like several of those moments when the frame of the goal has been his nemesis, Pogba should have scored from that position. When he does start to convert these opportunities, audiences will start to appreciate his talents that little but more.

Jose Mourinho wanted to see an improvement from Anthony Martial in recent weeks – and it’s clear he has got the desired response. The Frenchman troubled Saint-Etienne all evening, turning defenders inside out and running back on defensive duty – just as Mourinho had asked of him.

And what more can a player do? Martial has got his head down and sought to prove his worth on the pitch – that’s true professionalism. No throwing the toys out the pram, just proper graft. Add Thursday's display to his showing against Hull and you have a player who could go from being on the periphery to becoming the focal point – over to you, Marcus Rashford.

At least one of the Premier League’s big six must be struggling at any given time, or at least that’s the way it has been this season. So when Liverpool beat Spurs at Anfield on Saturday to end their own dismal run, they seemingly passed on some bad vibes to Mauricio Pochettino’s side.

Not since the 4-0 win over West Brom in mid-January have Spurs turned in a convincing performance, with the 1-0 defeat to Gent arguably the most listless of their slump so far. They allowed the Belgians to dictate possession and control the centre of the pitch, with Spurs’ pressing game almost non-existent.

And so just like Liverpool before them, Spurs need a big performance and a big result to snap them out of their stupor. Pochettino looked bemused by what he watched from his team in Belgium. He perhaps shouldn’t have been so surprised. This has become the norm for Spurs over the past few weeks.