Rooney record can’t mask Mourinho’s concern
Jose Mourinho wants record-breaker Wayne Rooney to help Manchester United solve a familiar problem after it again failed to turn its dominance into three points in a 1-1 draw with Stoke City on Saturday.
Juan Mata’s own-goal gave Stoke a 19th-minute lead at Britannia Stadium before Rooney rescued a point for the visitor deep into stoppagetime, becoming United’s alltime leading scorer with his 250th goal for the English giant as he broke Bobby Charlton’s longstanding club record.
While quick to acclaim Rooney’s “amazing achievement”, Mourinho cut a frustrated figure once again as he reflected on two more Premier League points lost and the fact that any chance of United mounting a belated title challenge is receding fast.
Rooney’s well-struck freekick was small consolation for a performance in which Unit-
Scoreboard
ed failed to make the most of the chances it created after Mata’s own-goal.
“It’s an amazing achievement, but the record is broken and now just let him (Rooney) be a normal player again and try to score more goals for us,” said Mourinho.
“It was a great goal, and on a team where you see incredible goals week after week, to get a phenomenal goal like he did is even more astonishing.
“Obviously in the Premier League, we have drawn too many matches, and today you saw why that is happening.
“The opposition scored without creating one single chance, and for us to score a goal we have to create six, seven chances, so it’s hard.”
United could find itself 14 points behind Chelsea if the Premier League leader wins at home to Hull on Sunday, and Mourinho would dearly love an end to his side’s scoring drought.
“Sometimes I’m on the bench and I’m tired of seeing my team play so well, create so many chances and it’s always dramatic to score a goal,” he said.
“I think for a long, long time that one day we will score every chance. Somebody will go home with six or seven in the basket.
“In spite of keeping a phenomenal unbeaten streak going, showing an amazing character by the team, showing an amazing empathy between the team and the fans, it is not a good result.
“In the end, I think we lost two points.”
Mourinho, however, praised Stoke’s resilience by saying: “It was a very difficult match, I have to say that Stoke started strong and after they defended with absolutely everything, with grit, emotion and aggression, but good aggression, nothing negative.
“They did everything to defend their goal.”
Meanwhile, Stoke manager Mark Hughes, himself a former United striker, paid tribute to Rooney.
“It’s unbelievable,” said the Welshman.
“Sir Bobby’s record stood for over 40 years and a lot of very good strikers have come and gone in that time and not got near the record.
“For Wayne to do it, we clearly didn’t want it to happen today, but with top, top players, you only have to give them one opportunity to produce a ball that’s right on the money.
“A little bit of magic from him got them something out of the game.”
Yet for all his disappointment at the draw, Hughes was proud of mid-table Stoke’s performances against United this season.
“When you concede so late in the game, it feels like a defeat,” he said.
“When we wake up in the morning though, we’ ll realize we’ve had two games against United home and away and we haven’t been beaten, so we can take a lot of credit from that.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp berated his side’s “passive” defending after Saturday’s 3-2 home loss to Swansea dealt a major blow to the Reds’ Premier League title hopes.
Relegation-threatened Swansea became the first visiting team to win a league match at Anfield in more than a year as Fernando Llorente scored twice before Gylfi Sigurdsson struck the winner 16 minutes from time.
Once again Liverpool looked good on attack in a match where two goals from Roberto Firmino saw the Reds recover from a 2-0 deficit.
But Klopp was infuriated by the Merseysiders’ display at the other end of the pitch as they missed the chance to close to within four points of leader Chelsea.
“We showed again that when we are on track, we are a strong side and can really create chances and score goals,” he said.
“But the defending around all three goals today was not good enough. That’s a very important part of the game and