While Manchester United and Liverpool supporters are sharply divided and find themselves often clashing, they can certainly agree on today’s game lacking entertainment value. United visited Anfield and the result was a dull, drab goalless draw that very reminiscent of all the tedious 0-0 results we saw last year under Louis van Gaal.
Jose Mourinho has a well deserved reputation as a defensive manager, and he lived up to that today. The Red Devils looked a lot like many of the blues teams Mourinho led.
Tonight’s Manchester United showing wasn’t the Chelsea “park the bus,” and it wasn’t LVG style obsession with possession and then do nothing with it.
It was more of the so-called “master class” by “the special one.” It also helps when you blame the contest’s lack of scoring on your opponent, as Mourinho did.
“Last season United won here. Liverpool had 14 shots on target and United had one,” said the Portuguese.
“How many shots on target did Liverpool have on target today? Two [official statistics actually recorded three].
“Two shots on target with 65 percent of possession. You have to be critical of Liverpool. It is their problem, not our problem.
“I think it was a good performance. It was a difficult match for us and for them and I think we controlled the game tactically and emotionally and it is not easy to do both things here.”
“The result I think is acceptable. We wanted more. For long periods in the game we thought that could be possible but we didn’t score and, if you don’t score, you don’t win. But I think it was very positive performance.”
“We stopped them playing, but they also did very well from the defensive point of view.”
“They played [Emre] Can and [Jordan] Henderson for some reason and they did that for 90 minutes, so 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.”
United achieved only one shot on goal tonight while Liverpool had just three. Yes, it was boring, but hey this black Halloween cat streak across the Anfield pitch was very entertaining.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.