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Jose Mourinho has no need to apologise for being the first manager to stop Liverpool scoring at Anfield this season.

From all the back-handed compliments about spoiling tactics, parking the bus and smothering Liverpool’s front five, you would have thought Manchester United reneged on a promise to go gung-ho and get picked off by prior arrangement.

And from some of the comments about Mourinho’s tactics forsaking United’s proud traditions of adventurous, attacking football, I would say: Get real – and expect more of the same at Chelsea on Sunday.

There are two sides to a football match: Scoring goals at one end and stopping them at the other.

Yes, United came up short as an attacking force at Anfield, but defensively it was a tactical masterclass from the Special One.

(Image: John Powell/Liverpool FC) (Image: Action Images via Reuters / Carl Recine)



Liverpool were restricted to one chance in the box and David De Gea’s fantastic save from Philippe Coutinho’s long-range effort.

Instead of sneering that United got the point they came for, and turned Red Monday into Dread Monday, how about recognising a job well done?

If Zlatan Ibrahimovic had buried United’s best chance, it would have been the perfect away performance.

(Image: REUTERS) (Image: Action Images via Reuters / Carl Recine)

Don’t give me any sentimental rubbish about the good old days under Sir Alex Ferguson, they are long gone.

United have not played swashbuckling, open football for years – certainly not in two seasons under Louis Van Gaal, not in the year before that under David Moyes, and even when they won the title in Fergie’s last season, United had to dig out results instead of sweeping all before them.

Harking back to proud traditions and hankering for Ryan Giggs and Andrei Kanchelskis haring down the wings is all well and good, but the reality is that Fergie was happy to be cautious when it suited him, too.

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He wasn’t afraid to bring Darren Fletcher into midfield for big games in Europe – and remember he was the first United manager to drop Wayne Rooney for tactical reasons, against Real Madrid in the Champions League in 2013.

Fergie would also move Rooney out to the left flank to make a five-man midfield, so he wasn’t always the great adventurer.

But maybe, just maybe, the Manchester United way is a bit different now.

(Image: Jasper Juinen) (Image: Paul Gilham)

When United appointed Mourinho as their manager, they were effectively putting results and trophies ahead of artistic merit.

He is not going to take a team to Liverpool and go toe-to-toe with them. It’s not going to happen, That’s the reality of the Special One.

After that worrying sequence of defeats last month, most United fans would have taken a clean sheet and a point at Anfield.

And if Mourinho comes up with more surprises on his teamsheet at Stamford Bridge this weekend, I bet they would take another point before a ball was kicked.

When was the last time we saw a team at Old Trafford who played in the so-called United way?

To tell the truth, it’s several years now.

Leave Mourinho to chart a course in his own image, and like all his predecessors, he will stand or fall on his results.