Jamie Carragher has claimed he would like to see Tottenham Hotspur boss Jose Mourinho lift the Premier League title if Liverpool fail to defend their crown.
Although Liverpool and Manchester City remain the favourites, Tottenham have emerged as unlikely contenders in recent weeks under Mourinho thanks to their attacking displays.
And Carragher has explained why he wants Mourinho to silence his critics this season.
"I want Liverpool to win the league, obviously but I’d love to see Mourinho win again," he said on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football.
“Because even though we talk on here about tactics and systems and different things and we love it, we get ingrained in it.
“Mourinho’s had so much thrown at him. He’s yesterday’s man, his football’s from a different era. All these different things - fresh managers, whatever.
“I’d love to see Mourinho win again in terms of sticking two fingers up to me and him or different people or the press, the papers, whoever is out there.
“I think it would be a good story in some ways for Mourinho to do that again.
“For what he’s achieved in his career, I think he gets a lot of criticism because he does rub people up the wrong way at times with his press conferences or how he goes about certain things.
“But I think it would be nice in some ways to see him win, and maybe win a different way.
“I’m not for all this ‘you have to play a certain way’ or ‘only this way can win’.
“I’d love to see Mourinho win - if Jurgen didn’t.”
Tottenham climbed to fifth in the table after their 1-0 win over Burnley on Monday night.
Despite a game of few clear cut chances, Son Heung-min's second half header from a Harry Kane flick-on was enough to seal the three points for Mourinho's side.
Speaking after the game, the Spurs boss admitted he was delighted with the victory, given Burnley's tactics.
"This is the kind of match with ingredients to lose points," Mourinho said. "Monday night, empty stadium, cold rainy night, an opponent that defends very, very well and copes well with the attacking power of an opponent like us.
"Ingredients to lose points unless you want very, very much to win matches, which is when you can do something special. Europa League, Premier League, doesn't matter what – I want the team to go to every match to win.
"Then you lose, draw but you go to win it. This is something special I believe, because it's a change in mentality, a change of philosophy.
"But tonight was the kind of match I knew from the beginning, I've come here since 2013, I know Sean [Dyche], I know Burnley and I know how it is to play against them and I knew we couldn't play the way we like to play.
"But we cope well with difficulties Burnley gave us on the pitch and three important points for us."
