Avoidingdefeat at Anfield now primary target

JOSE Mourinho hasn’t taken much from the Sir Alex Ferguson playbook when it comes to the style of his United team, but he has read the chapter about trips to Anfield.

While Ferguson’s teams are generally remembered for fast, free-flowing football, that wasn’t always the case.

The Scot certainly had a pragmatic streak and he usually displayed it when heading down the East Lancs Road.

This is the game that no United fan wants to lose – and Ferguson was no different. He would regularly turn up at Anfield having left the attacking ethos his teams were famous for back in Manchester, instead adopting a more defensive approach. A clean sheet was the first target.

Mourinho hasn’t got United playing in the swashbuckling way that Ferguson’s teams were renowned for. They are more about the power while Fergie’s United focused on the pace.

The two bosses probably have little in common when it comes to their footballing principles, apart from a burning desire to inflict some misery on the inhabitants of Anfield. They’ve both succeeded.

Ferguson relished this fixture, even when Liverpool were no threat to the supremacy of United during the glory years of his reign.

But the fact they posed no danger over the course of a season didn’t stop him treating them with respect in a one-off battle.

He changed his approach to trips to Anfield as time wore on. United’s first 18 league visits there under Ferguson yielded just two clean sheets, including a run of 27 goals conceded in 14 league games between 1990/91 and 2003/04.

That United won six of those games said much for their attacking ability, but Ferguson opted for a change of approach. Rather than the rollercoaster of emotions that trips to Anfield had become, he decided to suffocate Liverpool.

For neutrals the games were much less watchable, but nobody of a United persuasion cared.

Four clean sheets in a row arrived between 2004/05 and 2007/08 and United won three of those games 1-0. The lack of goals didn’t lead to a lack of enjoyment in the corner of the Anfield Road End.

After the goalless draw in September 2005, Ferguson said: “You could see it had 0-0 written all over it from early. Maybe this game, it is just too important now (to lose).”

Avoiding defeat was now the primary target. Don’t let Liverpool have the bragging rights.

It’s that template that United have tended to follow and since Ferguson’s departure they have conceded just two goals to Liverpool in five league meetings at Anfield. That includes a run of three clean sheets in a row, two overseen by Mourinho on the one day of the season where his approach closely aligns with Ferguson’s.

Liverpool are considered the Premier League’s great entertainers. Just not against United.

Reds fans would surely take another 0-0 if offered to them now. The advantage Ferguson had over Mourinho was the individual brilliance that could still result in a significant threat to Liverpool’s goal.

But nobody could blame Jose for adopting a defensive approach at Anfield tomorrow.

If anything, it’s becoming the United tradition.