Paris Saint-Germain's under-pressure coach Unai Emery hopes Angel Di Maria can contribute more in the second half of 2016-17.
PSG, Ligue 1 title-winners in each of the last four seasons, have struggled to convince early in the Spaniard's debut campaign at the helm.
"When a star player like Ibrahimovic leaves, the responsibility that other top players like Di Maria take on puts them even more in the fans' minds," Emery told Marca.
"He is a very experienced player and a very important one, whose performance has been good, while we all think and hope he'll get even better. I'm sure that will happen in the second half of the season."
While Di Maria may, in his coach's opinion, have room for improvement, Emery offered a ringing endorsement of frontman Edinson Cavani, who has moved into a central attacking role to take over from Ibrahimovic.
"Cavani has the challenge of becoming the offensive focal point of the team and he is achieving it," he said.
"His work for the team is really good."
