Mourinho: Liverpool are better

Jose Mourinho chose his words carefully, and they proved to be as candid as they were concerning for Manchester United as their worst start to a Premier League season hit a new low.

“Liverpool,” Mourinho said, “is a better team than us.”

Liverpool’s 3-1 win over their great rivals yesterday was confirmation of that — although it still needed two strokes of luck to underline the gulf that has quickly grown between English soccer’s two grandest clubs.

Xherdan Shaqiri came off the bench and scored goals from deflected shots in the 73rd and 80th minutes to finally give Liverpool daylight in a matchthey dominated from the start at Anfield. In total, Liverpool had 36 shots to United’s six.

The gap between Liverpool in first place and United in sixth place extended to 19 points after just 17 games.

“We cannot compare with their intensity,” Mourinho said, “we cannot compare with their physicality.”

The sight of former United manager Sir Alex Ferguson looking glum in the stands and United’s record signing, Paul Pogba, burying his head in his thick training top summed up the state of United at the moment.

“We can still finish fourth,” Mourinho added.

“For sure, we are going to finish top six.”

United are one point above seventh-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers and 11 behind fourthplaced Chelsea.