While United’s dour days under Louis van Gaal are gone, Klopp has built the most complete Liverpool team since the Premier League beganDuring the buildup José Mourinho and Jürgen Klopp were careful to highlight each other’s qualities. Cut to his arrival at Old Trafford and the Liverpool manager quickly dropped that stance and ended the game arguing with his opposite number saying: “I read the programme notes and it is the first time there was nothing about welcome to Liverpool or something like this. Then I wanted a coffee and in the can was only tea. It’s started already, yeah? It’s all OK. It’s football and we are ready for it.”So, too, was the crowd whose vibrancy gave the stadium...
José Mourinho probably cannot repeat the Manchester United tactics from October’s 0-0 draw at Liverpool, in the latest clash with a manager who bested him in a pivotal 2013 gameFootball changed in April 2013. Jürgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund beat José Mourinho’s Real Madrid and Jupp Heynckes’s Bayern Munich beat Tito Vilanova’s Barcelona in the semi-finals of the Champions League and the hegemony of a Spanish model of football, based on possession or its opposite, was shattered by a series of rampaging German counterattacks.The lessons of that fortnight remain highly relevant to Sunday’s meeting at Old Trafford between Manchester United and Liverpool, Mourinho and Klopp. Or at least that is the convenient theory. Nothing is ever as neat and simple as...
Few of the former manager’s costly signings succeeded at Old Trafford and many, like the Everton-bound Morgan Schneiderlin, soon found their careers in limboOne has to feel a little bit sorry for Morgan Schneiderlin somewhere along the line, even if the basic reason his move to Manchester United did not work out was because he could not prove himself a better midfield option than the 35-year-old Michael Carrick.United splurging all that money on Paul Pogba did not help either, though even with the world’s most expensive player in the lineup this season Carrick has still been getting the nod over Schneiderlin and José Mourinho was being somewhat economical with the truth when he suggested on Tuesday that he had been...
Mourinho’s moan about the poor atmosphere at Old Trafford against Hull has some justification yet was designed to produce a reaction against LiverpoolOne reading of José Mourinho’s criticism of Manchester United supporters is that it is hardly going to enamour the manager to them. This is a constituency who have to hear the chant, “Fergie’s right/your fans are shite”, from their opposite numbers on most match-days at Old Trafford.Mourinho’s calling out of the faithful came after Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat of Hull City in the EFL Cup semi-final first leg. The Portuguese’s complaint was that if the volume for Liverpool’s visit on Sunday was not higher the hope of beating United’s fiercest rival is materially reduced. Related: José Mourinho urges...
Leicester City’s title win was every bit the fairy story, as was Wales’ run at Euro 2016, but England displayed their unerring ability to ruin the moodThe year 2016 was a terrific one for the Premier League and a terrible 12 months for English football. Leicester City’s title success was every bit the fairytale, the perfect antidote to long-held and justifiable fears that ordinary clubs could no longer dream of glory as the bigger institutions and the Champions League elite had effectively ringfenced all the prizes worth winning. Related: A 2016 football moment to remember: Dejan Lovren sets the Kop on fire | Paul Doyle Arsenal and Tottenham are particularly guilty of dithering instead of cashing in on managerial changes elsewhereI've...