Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho
claimed that his team had exposed Liverpool’s shortcomings after holding Jurgen
Klopp’s well-regarded team to a 0-0
draw. Liverpool went into Monday’s game at
Anfield seeking a sixth successive win in all competitions and bidding to draw
level on points with Premier League leaders Manchester City and second-place
Arsenal.
But United restricted them to few chances,
with visiting goalkeeper David de Gea largely untroubled apart from a pair of
eye-catching second-half saves to deny Emre Can and Philippe Coutinho. “The
goalkeeper (De Gea) was on holiday for 90 minutes, but he had two big saves to
do and he did,” said Mourinho, whose side remain seventh in the table.
“When we recover the ball I was expecting the
team to be more dangerous, (although) we had two good chances, but Liverpool
did too. “They are not the last wonder of the world like you (the media) say
they are, but they are a very good team so we had to adapt a little to them.”
Premier League statisticians Opta said United had only had 35 percent of
possession — their lowest tally for a league fixture since such statistics
started being gathered in the 2003-04 season. But Mourinho returned to the
press conference room after he had finished addressing reporters to say the
club’s own statisticians thought United had seen more of the ball. “My guy did
it — 42 (percent), not 35,” he said, having re-emerged through a side door. “I
thought it was crazy. We do it ourselves with better people than them.” He had
earlier dismissed the importance of statistics, pointing out that United had
won 1-0 at Anfield under his predecessor Louis van Gaal last season despite
being largely outplayed. “Last season United won here, Liverpool had 14 shots
on target and United had one,” he said. “How many shots on target did Liverpool
have on target today? Two. Two shots on target with 65 percent of possession.
“You have to be critical of Liverpool. It is their problem, not our problem.” –
‘Hectic’ – United largely succeeded in stifling Liverpool, with wide players
Marcus Rashford and Ashley Young notably dropping deep to create a six-man
defence at times. The visitors procured a clear sight of goal early in the
second half when Paul Pogba, playing in a more advanced role, picked out Zlatan
Ibrahimovic, only for the Swede to miscue his header. Liverpool improved following
the 59th-minute introduction of Adam Lallana, either side of which De Gea
showed characteristically snappy reactions to foil Can and Coutinho. “We lost
patience far too early and our passing game was not good,” said Liverpool
manager Jurgen Klopp, whose side trail City by two points. “We had 65 percent
possession, but we have to do better. I didn’t expect we would have 10 to 15
chances. Second half we had chances, but De Gea was finally warm and he made
brilliant saves. “They had that chance with Ibrahimovic. The best news tonight
is we have one point more and a clean sheet, nothing else. “We can do much
better and we must do much better. We have to stay cool. When they want to
chase us, we have to use counter-movements. “Really good attitude of my side.
They tried everything, only with the wrong tools.” Klopp dismissed suggestions
his players had been affected by being saddled with the pre-match favourites
tag. “Maybe it is very important for the rest of the world what you all write,
but for us it is not important,” he said. “We were not favourites in the
dressing room. Tonight nobody thought about this. “You could see Man United is
physically stronger than we are. We couldn’t get rid of the hectic (mindset) —
that was the problem. “When you have the ball you have to calm down immediately
and that is what we didn’t do.”
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