HA! HA! HA! HA! Jurgen Klopp, perched on a table next to the photocopier in an ante-room, unleashed his famously manic laugh. He had just been asked if Liverpool had a plan to stop Manchester United, as Jose Mourinho had intimated. It is fair to say this German does do irony. Watching Liverpool’s manager handle his post-match inquest was much like studying him on the touchline. All his anger, tension and frustration hidden in outbreaks of crazily forced good humour. We know what he wanted to say, after this — but where would it get him? Some 29 years on nobody has forgotten the feud between Kenny Dalglish and Sir Alex Ferguson.
Klopp knew better than to pick a fight with Mourinho. So he threw it back to his inquisitors, time and again. We saw the game. We have seen many Klopp teams over the years. What did we think? Who did we feel was trying to stop who?
He knew the answer. And he knew we did, too. ‘They got the point they wanted and we didn’t get the win we wanted,’ was Klopp’s succinct appraisal. ‘ People around the stadium saw a game they wanted to see — but they all had Liverpool shirts on. They wanted a goal, too, and we didn’t score so that’s not perfect. But the rest? They saw that we threw all we had on the pitch.’
Did Manchester United? In terms of collective effort, yes, but in ambition, no. Mourinho tried to share the blame, even shift it towards Liverpool for keeping a tight midfield unit, denying him the chance to counter-attack with creative substitutions, but few neutrals were buying that.
He said he had no midfielders in reserve, but what he meant was he had no physically imposing ones like Paul Pogba or Marouane Fellaini. He had Juan Mata, who most consider a fine midfield option, but chose not to use him. He said Klopp had made like-for-like substitutions that were no risk, yet what is Marcus Rashford for Anthony Martial, or Jesse Lingard for Henrik Mkhitaryan? The only variation Mourinho offered was when he brought on a centre half for a wide midfielder, in added time.
There is an old Jewish joke about Morty, whose business is failing. Each week he goes to the synagogue and prays. ‘ Lord,’ he says, ‘I am running out of money fast. Please find it in your heart — let me win the lottery.’
This continues for weeks. The pleas grow more desperate, until one day, light fills the room and voice booms from the heavens. ‘Morty,’ says God, ‘meet me halfway — buy a ticket.’
And that’s what United didn’t do. They didn’t buy a ticket. Mourinho has his detractors and many claims against him are overstated, but it was hard to defend this. It wasn’t Inter Milan with 10 men against Barcelona at the Nou Camp. It wasn’t a game where he is accused of parking a bus, when his only crime is to set up a team to win. Mourinho isn’t as negative as is made out. Largely, his teams play very good, exciting, ambitious football.
Yet not here. United are a better team than Liverpool, with a stronger squad. They could have played them at least as equals and, more feasibly, as superiors. Instead, they waited for Liverpool to make the game, they left Romelu Lukaku in isolation for long periods and they settled for a point. And that may prove their undoing this season because a point at Anfield may not be the prize it was.
Manchester City raised the bar with the way they played Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. They made no compromises, did not lower their ambition by even the tiniest degree — and they will not when they visit Liverpool in January. That doesn’t mean they win. They may draw, or even lose, but the aim will be victory by a margin, as happened when the teams met in Manchester on September 9.
There will be no game in which City arrive happy with a draw. United looked as if they would have taken that from 15 minutes in. This is what Klopp meant when he spoke of United coming for a point. It will not have started that way — but ambition was replaced by pragmatism very quickly.
‘If you want to judge our two match plans then do it,’ Klopp added. ‘Most things they did today were completely clear. Jose obviously did what he thinks is right, or what he wants to do, and that is OK. I won’t moan and say, “Come on, open up a little bit” because that’s not how it is.
‘They want to win the league and I’m sure we couldn’t play like this at Liverpool after a hundred years without the title. We start trying it, we sit back, we say, “Let’s wait” — that is not possible. The challenger has to do more, has to do whatever is necessary.’
Yet are United — without a league title since 2013 when Ferguson stepped down — immune to that pressure, too? Mourinho would argue not. Maybe the locals will take a first one post-Ferguson that doesn’t come with bells and whistles, but after that?
Ferguson delivered the odd masterclass, too, but few ended goalless. Hearing Lukaku defend his record against the biggest teams after a rare blank in a United shirt, made one wonder how often he will have to deliver that speech if United take this same game plan to London, or deploy it in December against Manchester City.
‘Hard work and being solid is the
nature of any team,’ said United’s Phil Jones, ‘and whether you play Liverpool or Burnley away you don’t want to get beat. If you can’t win, make sure you don’t lose and that is the mentality in our dressing room. People may criticise but let them — we’ll see where we are at the end of the season.’
Indeed, there is a long way to go. But one thing is almost certain: United will not be ahead of Manchester City on goal difference or goals scored in this campaign. Meaning they have to lead on points. Meaning they have to risk in the biggest matches. Meaning they cannot afford many more afternoons like this — or convince themselves that a goalless draw at Anfield is the same decent, steady, gutsy point it always was. This title will need more.
No comments:
Post a Comment