Mourinho must take off shackles
BIG CLASH: UNITED BOSS CAN’T AFFORD TO BE PRAGMATIC
Liverpool go to Old Trafford with star men in red-hot form.
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has the tough task of keeping Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah quiet as Juergen Klopp’s side roll into town at the weekend – with second place in the Premier League the prize on offer.
With Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City virtually assured of the title, United and Liverpool are left fighting for the scraps.
United’s impressive fightback from 2-0 down on Monday to beat Crystal Palace 3-2 maintained their slender two-point lead over Liverpool in the battle for the runners-up spot behind runaway leaders City.
Nemanja Matic bailed out Mourinho’s men with a stunning stoppage-time strike in London but another three points papered over the cracks in the latest in a series of unconvincing performances from United.
The onus will be on Mourinho to take the game to the visitors at Old Trafford today but the Portuguese manager, criticised for keeping his array of attackers firmly on the leash, is unlikely to risk throwing caution to the wind.
With Virgil van Dijk settling in well at the back and Loris Karius impressing in goal, the pieces are falling into place for Klopp’s team, who have lost just once in 20 Premier League games.
But it is their forwards, led by the irrepressible Salah alongside Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, who have scored a combined 68 goals this season, that will give Mourinho sleepless nights.
There was a palpable sensation around Anfield on Tuesday that Liverpool minds were already focused on United, with the free-scoring front three all rested at different spells of the game.
The match against Liverpool is the first of three games in eight days for United at Old Trafford.
Sevilla visit in the last-16 of the Champions League on Tuesday with the tie delicately balanced at 0-0 after the first leg, before inform Brighton head north for an FA Cup quarterfinal.
Mourinho conceded recently “to play Liverpool has a special meaning” for United, so reserving his stars’ energies for midweek is out of the question.
He does have a big decision to make over whether to persist with Chilean Alexis Sanchez on the left side of United’s attack.
He has scored just once since moving from Arsenal in January.
Elsewhere, Chelsea need to bounce back from four defeats in five league games if they are to retain any realistic hope of a topfour finish at home to struggling Palace and Tottenham must pick themselves up at Bournemouth after being dumped out of the Champions League by Juventus.
A heavily-rotated City side lost for just the fourth time this season to Basel in midweek, but still progressed to the quarterfinals and can move to within three wins of mathematically sealing the title at Stoke on Monday.
Arsenal, trailing fourth-placed Spurs by 13 points, look to have blown their hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League but Arsene Wenger will be desperate to reverse an alarming slump when Watford visit the Emirates. – Reuters Arsenal v Watford, Bournemouth v Tottenham Monday: Stoke v Manchester City