Jose Mourinho has likened Zlatan Ibrahimovic to a quality suit when explaining the reasons for not bringing him on the pre-season tour of China.

The Swedish superstar joined United at the beginning of the month but has not yet trained with the squad having competed at Euro2016.

While others who played in France this summer have travelled to the China for the 2016 International Champions Cup, Mourinho opted not to take former PSG ace Ibrahimovic to the Far East so he can fine tune his 34-year-old big-name addition.

"The best suits are the suits by measure," said Mourinho from Shanghai.

"Suits made by measure should be better than going to a shop and just buying a size that may fit you well or not so well. I do the same for players. There are no two players the same.

"My decision on Zlatan is the consequence of many hours of study, analysis and discussion with my staff. Despite the fact he was out of the Euros one match before the English guys, everything is different.

"The body is different, the mind is different and the timing to have holidays and even things you don't know, and don't have to know, is to prepare in a different way like we do at training level.

"We try to do suits by measure that are perfect for the person and the way I'm building the team is more important for me with the players from other positions than the one I think who is going to play as the striker.

"I need to change the profile of the team in relation to other dynamics. The striker will be the easy one to finish the puzzle."