Desperate negativity of his approach to playing Liverpool at home is José Mourinho’s management style in microcosmChampions aren’t flawless. It’s just that you only glimpse their flaws for a fleeting instant – a shadow you think you saw in the mirror – before they are gone.For around half an hour on Saturday evening, Liverpool looked flawed. Roared on by a capacity crowd, Tottenham slung themselves forward in waves: attacking the spaces, pinging crosses across the box, getting shots away. The substitutes Giovani Lo Celso and Érik Lamela grabbed control of the game in the middle third, often by sheer force of will alone. The irrepressible Lucas Moura scrapped and slalomed his way into threatening positions. Big chances came and went....
José Mourinho’s embrace of the untouchable Brazilian was as close as Tottenham got to Jürgen Klopp’s match-winner on a day when Spurs were left chasing red ghostsThere was a funny moment at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as the TV camera team ran on to get that full-time shot, the one that frames the gurgling post-match summary. On this occasion they ran to Roberto Firmino, scorer of the game’s only goal, and an ideal subject for that defining portrait: shirt off, guns out, applauding the away support in faux-pious isolation.Except, they couldn’t get it. Firmino kept disappearing, submerged by other bodies, hugging Xherdan Shaqiri, dodging the solo shot with the studied expertise of Jason Bourne evading a sniper on a crowded...
Odds are against depleted Spurs, Everton need to respond after their derby woe while Solskjær is feeling the heat againJosé Mourinho’s life in football can be measured out in vendettas. There are two clubs he reserves a special enmity for, and for much the same reason. Both Barcelona and Liverpool passed over his services, choosing instead to turn to Pep Guardiola and Rafa Benítez, by little consequence two managers he has most enjoyed getting the better of. Only recently arrived at Tottenham, his latest club are near powerless to stop Liverpool’s procession to the Premier League title, save for performing the unlikely act of ending the leaders’ unbeaten run. To do so would be one of the shocks of the...
The local boy with more league assists than anyone this season except Kevin De Bruyne must be in running for the PFA awardIn its 46 years, the PFA’s Player of the Year award has been given to 41 people, representing 15 clubs and 12 countries from England to Egypt. The winners have been young and old, tall and short, but they all have one thing in common: none of them have been full-backs. There is a lot of football still to be played this season but already it seems there’s no doubt about the destiny of the title, and though there are several Liverpool players who will be in the discussion when the individual awards are handed out, I think...
Everton have not won at Anfield since 1999 but new manager hopes his record will tell against Liverpool in third-round tieCarlo Ancelotti has a much better record in the FA Cup than Jürgen Klopp, despite spending only two seasons in England to the Liverpool manager’s four. Chelsea went all the way in Ancelotti’s first season at Stamford Bridge, winning at Wembley to leave the Italian newcomer with an impressive league and Cup Double, and, though they were knocked out by Everton in the fourth round the following year, they had already completed a 7-0 rout of Ipswich in the third.It is fair to say that Klopp’s FA Cup career thus far has never hit any of those heights. His Liverpool...