After the dour 0-0 draw against Manchester United at Anfield last night, Jose Mourinho hit out at Liverpool for a ‘cautious’ approach to the game. Manchester United only managed 35% possession which was their lowest since 2003. Manchester United also had two fewer shots with only one managing to find it’s way on target in the entire 90 minutes. Yet the former Chelsea boss was quick to deflect any blame for the spectacle onto his opposite number.
“They played Can and Henderson for some reason and they did that for 90 minutes when they normally project more players in attack. They were very cautious. They kept always Can and Henderson in position. They had only one player behind the three more offensive players. I think it was their intention to try and control us, which they also did well.” said Mourinho post match.
After a good start to the league Manchester United currently sit in seventh position in the table, three points behind Liverpool who are currently in 4th, two points off the leaders Manchester City and Arsenal. I am sure many Manchester United fans would have taken advantage of a lot of Free Bets from sites claiming that they would lead the table at this point but that doesn’t seem to be the case at present.
Although Liverpool were the team forcing the issue, boss Jurgen Klopp showed a little more class post match and focused on his own teams short comings.
Klopp said: “I am not too happy. The game from the first second was very hectic and maybe that was what Manchester United wanted and we didn’t want, maybe it was more for their advantage. That can happen from the start but you have to find your way back to the way we usually play. We lost patience far too early and our passing game was not good. We had 65% possession but we have to do better. I didn’t expect we would have 10-15 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. We had these situations but in the last third we lost patience. It was like ‘Give it to Daniel’. It was a very difficult game for a striker. There was a really good attitude from my side. They tried everything, only with the wrong tools.”
Liverpool have only lost one game this season away to Burnley, the only other dropped points were away to in form Tottenham and that was a draw so the red half of Merseyside can be very happy with the start to the campaign after some very tough fixtures away to Arsenal, away to Chelsea and Tottenham as well as a thumping victory at home to last seasons Champions Leicester City.
Klopp’s men have a nice stretch of winnable games until the turn of the year when the likes of Everton and Manchester City will see what this team is made of.
