Mourinho’s defensive failures

a Mo Salah counter and the professional foul which led to a red card for Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

As Palace pushed for an equaliser in time added on, Van Dijk rose highest to send a dangerous set-piece from the hosts behind for a corner.

When that ball was sent into the box, he muscled opponents out of the way to steer the ball to safety and start the move for Sadio Mane’s insurance strike.

The man of the match award was a formality and, for Klopp, it was further vindication of the expensive search for the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

It’s still a staggering amount of money to spend on a player who showed in the run to the Champions League final that he was far from the finished article.

But with his age profile, £75m now begins to look like a reasonable enough move in an era of bloated prices.

If Liverpool go on to get five years’ service out of Van Dijk then £15m per year for a central defensive linchpin – admittedly with wages on top – is a fair enough price to play when he is inf luencing games to that degree.

The finer details of the money don’t matter too much to clubs in that bracket.

They pay whatever it takes to make the deal work. Essentially, the premium is worth it if the player is up to the challenge.

United’s trust in Mourinho is clearly shaken but chances are they will have to pay much more to plug that gap regardless of who they trust with the money.

They could have afforded Van Dijk comfortably and must now ask themselves where the blame lies.

Granted, the equation is the same for them when it comes to the cost – they have the funds there if they really need it.

But the issue is that there’s a shortage of ready-made players around who can definitely improve them in that department.

By failing to identify Van Dijk’s credentials before it was too late, they have let an opportunity slip.

Of course, there’s no guarantee he would have made the same impact at United. It’s still the manager’s job to create the environment that brings the best out of their recruits.

After all, you don’t hear too much quibbling about the fee that United paid for Pogba now. At the World Cup he lived up to the price tag.

Instead, the issue is Mourinho’s inability to bring the best out of him.