Scottish Daily Mail

YOU MUST WIN TROPHIES TO BE A SUCCESS

LUNCH DATE FOR UNITED MEN WHO KNOW ALL ABOUT TITLES

- by CHRIS WHEELER

JOSE MOURINHO has aimed a dig at Jurgen Klopp by telling his rival he must win trophies to be considered a success at Liverpool.

Klopp’s side are top of the Premier League table as they prepare to face bitter enemies Manchester United at Anfield tomorrow, but the German has not won any silverware in more than three years on Merseyside.

United boss Mourinho believes Klopp, who has also lost in the final of three competitio­ns, should be expected to challenge for the title after spending nearly £250million on new players this year alone.

‘I think trophies matter, especially when you have the potential to fight for trophies and when you clearly say that the objective is to win the trophy,’ said Mourinho.

‘I think Jurgen said already they want to win the Premier League, it’s their objective.

‘Sometimes just to say it is not very intelligen­t. But when you have the potential, you have nothing to hide. You know from day one that your desire has a relation with the potential.’

Mourinho admitted that he is far from moulding a team in his own image, as Klopp has done at Anfield, with United lying in sixth place and 16 points behind Liverpool going into what is still one of the biggest matches in the English calendar.

The 55-year-old compared the teams to a house to demonstrat­e his belief that fundamenta­l improvemen­ts still need to be made at United to turn them into challenger­s again.

‘It’s not just about the money they (Liverpool) spent in the summer, it is about many things,’ said Mourinho (below).

‘A football team is more than that. A football team is a little bit like a house. A house is not just about buying new furniture. You have to do work on the house and when the house is ready, then you buy furniture. You spend money on the best possible furniture and then you’re ready to live in an amazing house.’

Although Mourinho hasn’t lost at Anfield since 2007, engineerin­g two goalless draws there as United boss, he has been stung by criticism of his tactics in the past.

He insisted that United will ‘fight for victory’ after two encouragin­g Premier League performanc­es against Arsenal and Fulham as he tries to get another result on Merseyside.

‘I’m going to try,’ he added. ‘I always try and I want to play a team that is capable to be with me on that desire and on that ambition and on that confidence.

‘We know that we are going to play against the leaders, against a team on a high, but we have our qualities and our potential.

‘Even with the problems we have and even with the doubts in terms of team choice, of tactics, of approach, philosophy — we have doubts about everything because we don’t know which players are available — we are going to arrive with the players we have and we are going to have a team capable of going there to fight for the victory. ‘We got two positive results against Liverpool last season. We beat them at home, we didn’t lose any match against them in four, I think, but that’s the past. ‘Sunday has nothing to do with what happened in the past, so I have to focus not on what happened, not on the credit that we were given or not. ‘I have to focus on the next match. This is the one that is important and that’s it.’

Although United could feasibly be without up to nine players, Mourinho is hoping that some of them will be available after returning to training at Carrington yesterday.

Alexis Sanchez, Victor Lindelof and Marcos Rojo are certainly out, while there are fitness doubts over Anthony Martial, Chris Smalling, Luke Shaw, Diogo Dalot, Matteo Darmian and Scott McTominay.

Mourinho said: ‘All of them didn’t train on Thursday again and there will be a little — I don’t want to say test — but a little introducti­on to training to see the answer and to see if we can increase a little bit to have them available for Sunday.

‘I hope some will be available but, for sure, some will not.’

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 ??  ?? SIR ALEX FERGUSON (left) was reunited with some of his Class of 92 stars yesterday as Jose Mourinho prepared the current Manchester United side for tomorrow’s showdown with Liverpool. Ferguson was pictured at the Ivy in Manchester with (from left to right) Paul Scholes, Gary Neville (top), Nicky Butt and Ryan Giggs. The legendary United boss didn’t do too badly in his 63 clashes with Liverpool, winning 30, drawing 14 and losing 19.
SIR ALEX FERGUSON (left) was reunited with some of his Class of 92 stars yesterday as Jose Mourinho prepared the current Manchester United side for tomorrow’s showdown with Liverpool. Ferguson was pictured at the Ivy in Manchester with (from left to right) Paul Scholes, Gary Neville (top), Nicky Butt and Ryan Giggs. The legendary United boss didn’t do too badly in his 63 clashes with Liverpool, winning 30, drawing 14 and losing 19.
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