Jose’s mission: Stop Salah
CHALLENGE To keep Liverpool at bay, Mourinho must stop the striker he offloaded as Chelsea boss
MANCHESTER: Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has the tough task of keeping Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah quiet as Jurgen Klopp’s entertainers 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, northwest rivals United and Liverpool — the two most successful clubs in the English game — 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.
“We have to be honest, we have to play better,” Matic admitted once the euphoria of his first United goal died down. “We have to do more if we want to win as Liverpool is a team with great quality.”
ONUS ON JOSE
The onus will be on Mourinho to take the game to the visitors at Old Trafford on Saturday but the Portuguese, criticised for keeping his array of attackers firmly on the leash, is unlikely to risk throwing caution to the wind.
Liverpool had scored 20 goals in their previous seven games before a much-changed side drew 0-0 with Porto in midweek, a result that sealed a place in the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in nine years. With January signing 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 United’s Mourinho sleepless nights.
City 16 points clear at the top and needing just four more wins to be sure of the title, United fans would view Liverpool finishing above them as more salt in their wounds.
finish would assuage feelings all around as
side has frustrated the supporters at times this season, showing glimpses of turning their individual quality into a potent collective unit but failing to deliver the consistency needed for a title challenge.
won since the Premier League started in 1992
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
of recent fluency can be put down to the difficulty of integrating January signing Alexis Sanchez into the side while also keeping French midfielder Paul Pogba happy in his midfield role. They have some good attacking options but they have not fired home consistently.
win against Chelsea, Mourinho's side were disjointed and shapeless when they fell two goals behind against
Crystal Palace, only to rally and get the three points thanks to a last-minute strike by Nemanja
Matic. game.
A ‘SPECIAL’ ON CARDS
The match against Liverpool is the first of three games in eight days for United at Old Trafford
de Gea is in outstanding form this season having conceded only 22 league goals and has kept 15 clean sheets thus far.
under Klopp and is looking at his devastating best. He is the joint-top scorer in the league with 24 goals and has been a constant thorn in the side of rival defenders. The Egyptian striker, declared player of the month for February, has some scores to settle with Mourinho, who had offloaded him from Chelsea to Roma a few years ago. the last three matches between the two teams have ended goalless
out of the last 13 PL clashes between the two teams that United have won
cards shown in this fixture over the
Man United v Liverpool.
Newcastle v Southampton.
Chelsea v Crystal Palace. Live on Star Sports Select 1 & SHD 1. that will define their season.
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 in-form Brighton head north for
a charge up the table and go into Saturday’s clash on the back of three successive league wins and with just one defeat in their past 20 games in the
Premier League.
side goes into the game having booked its place in the last eight of Champions League while United face a tricky second leg clash against Seville in three days.
EPL titles Liverpool have won in 25 editions held so far since 1992 years. This is the second-most red carded rivalry in English football after the Manchester derby (21 reds).
scored by Romelu Lukaku in Premier League. If the United forward scored on Saturday, he will become the fifth youngest to reach 100 goals in Premier League West Brom v Leicester
West Ham v Burnley Everton v Brighton Huddersfield v Swansea 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.