José Mourinho’s Manchester United tenure started with an insistence that in thought and style his side would always be on the front foot. In play here was a pressing need to assure fans his arrival meant an end to the default position of cautiousness that marked the United of his predecessor Louis van Gaal.
What Monday night’s trip to face Liverpool at Anfield should throw light on is precisely how much of a sop to supporters Mourinho’s words at his July unveiling were. So far United have taken a greater degree of initiative in games than they did when Van Gaal was in charge. Given how plodding the Dutchman’s team could be, that is not the hardest of achievements.
Just as clear is that Mourinho’s gilded career has actually been built on a similar pragmatism to his predecessor at Old Trafford. “Sparkling”, “creative”, and “adventurous” are hardly words to sum up the 53-year-old’s Chelsea, Internazionale or Real Madrid teams.
“Powerful”, “machine-like” and “efficient” are. And for an adjective to illustrate Mourinho’s prevailing ethos away from home against a formidable foe, rewind to his most famous recent Premier League win on the road.
“Negative” was the term used by Brendan Rodgers after Chelsea blew open the 2013-14 title race by beating Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield three games from the close. The bitterly disappointed Northern Irishman also said: “There were probably two buses parked today instead of one,” a ploy also used, to offer another example, when Chelsea drew 0-0 at David Moyes’s United at the start of that same season.
In the league so far Mourinho’s United have been unconvincing away from Old Trafford. They were disjointed in the 3-1 win at Bournemouth, though that was on the opening day. They were stale at Hull City two weeks later and managed a 1-0 victory, scoring late in the game after Marcus Rashford’s 71st-minute introduction. And they stunk the place out at Watford in mid-September when going down 3-1.
In each outing there were only flashes of effervescence from United rather than long passages that point to a system set up to produce dynamic football. United did not park any buses but then none of Bournemouth, Hull or Watford are vying for the championship.
Liverpool are, so Monday’s match offers the first test of Mourinho’s United on the road against title rivals. Asked about his approach against Jürgen Klopp’s team, he said: “We try to win, that’s for sure.”
Any suggestion he may temper his approach was brushed off. “It’s not temper – it’s when they have the ball we have to defend and when we have the ball we have to attack,” Mourinho added. “When they have the ball we have to try and stop them scoring, and the best way to do that is to defend with 11 men. And when you have the ball you want to score, you want to be dominant, you want to have the ball and this is what we are doing.
“I think, to be honest, for the percentage of possession we have, for the number of shots we have on target, I think we should be really disappointed [with some results so far].
“I don’t think what happened last season is going to happen. Last season, Liverpool had 14 shots on target and United had one and the result was zero-one. I don’t think that is going to happen again, so we are what we are. We are playing the way we are playing, we have to improve in many things, but we have a certain style of play and we are not going to change that.”
Taken at face value, Mourinho’s last words confirm precisely how United will play on Monday: they have “a certain style” and they will not change. And, on closer examination, the intent to always take the initiative voiced in July is shown up as classic win-first, impress-second Mourinho.
“I prefer to be more aggressive and say we want to win. What is playing well? It is scoring more goals than the opponents, conceding less, making your fans proud because you give everything and you win. It is everything at the same time. It is an aggressive approach by myself,” he said.
Mourinho may not admit it publicly because United followers cannot countenance it – especially against their fiercest rivals – but he will surely not be unhappy with a draw in the eighth league game of the season.
It is the result his expected strategy at Anfield is most likely to produce for United.
