Manchester United and Liverpool played out a 0-0 draw at Anfield on Monday night and, depending on your perspective it was either an intriguing tactical battle or a boring negative match.
Even the most committed ‘IT WAS BORING’ fans must surely concede that Jose Mourinho’s tactical plan worked and Jurgen Klopp struggled to find a way around or through it. The first half was Manchester United’s, and the second belonged to Liverpool, but there was no one side who looked clearly better than the opposition throughout.
Spanish newspaper Marca, who know a thing or two about the Manchester United manager, say ‘it’s almost a tradition’ for Mourinho to play such a way in big games, and his lesson at Manchester City earlier this season will have reinforced that. However, Marca don’t just blame Mourinho for the negative game, saying that Liverpool were also held back by ‘a fear of losing’.
Whilst the perspective from Spain is often that their football is better, and there can be sneering, there seems almost a begrudging respect from Marca.
As for player ratings, is it any surprise that the two Spaniards on the pitch came out the best?
Marca may be accused of bias normally but Ander Herrera was superb, and Jose Mourinho has successfully started to instil a tactical discipline the player has lacked for much of his career, which could make him truly great.
David De Gea made a couple of very good saves, and there can’t be too much argument over how poorly Marca think Daniel Sturridge and Zlatan Ibrahimovic played.
