Only a couple of minutes had elapsed when the Liverpool and Manchester United fans cast their minds back. The visiting supporters began by chorusing about Steven Gerrard before the majority responded with songs about their former captain with understandably different lyrics.
The past is an ever-present when these two clubs meet. Yet Liverpool revisited a different part of history. Jose Mourinho can be a man to strip the excitement from any occasion when he chooses. His first spell at Chelsea only spanned three-and-a-half years but nevertheless included eight clean sheets against Liverpool. His second included a famous shutout which, allied with Gerrard’s infamous slip, cost the Merseysiders the title in 2014.
Back at Anfield, Mourinho illustrated that he can be a man to spoil any occasion. He came with a defensive game plan and it worked. It felt as though United had concluded that Liverpool were the more dynamic attacking force and concentrated on stifling them. A dirty job was done well. A drab game ended 0-0.
• Gallery: The best pictures from Anfield
Jurgen Klopp is one of football’s great romantics. Mourinho has a cynical side, and it was apparent. That is not necessarily a criticism. Alex Ferguson can be mythologised, remembered as an incorrigible attacker, but he often came to Anfield with a defensive game plan.
So did Mourinho. He brought in Marouane Fellaini, the least stylish footballer in the United ranks, to be ugly and ungainly. Fellaini duly was. He bolstered a department in which Ander Herrera was terrific. “Sensational,” said Dietmar Hamann, who has a PhD in the art of being a defensive midfielder.
Anfield objected to United’s — and the Spaniard’s — frequent fouling; it could be deemed tactical fouling. It rendered this a stop-start game. Liverpool lost their rhythm as a result, although that could be the consequences of the injuries that kept Georginio Wijnaldum out altogether and made Adam Lallana a bit-part player.
The Englishman’s groin problem meant his entrance was delayed until the hour mark. He came on for Daniel Sturridge, whose 100th Liverpool appearance was an underwhelming affair, to say the least.
When Roberto Firmino is the first line of the attack, he also leads the defensive effort with his incessant pressing. Liverpool were not as sharp with the Brazilian in a wider berth.
With Lallana, Liverpool were better and brighter. Their three finest moments came with him on the pitch, and without Sturridge.
Chances? They were few and far between. David De Gea, a past scourge of Liverpool, reprised that role with a fine save from Emre Can and a brilliant one from Philippe Coutinho. Firmino threatened to sprint clear for a late winner, but Antonio Valencia conjured a perfectly-judged challenge.
At the other end, Loris Karius had little to do to keep a first Premier League clean sheet, even though the world’s most expensive footballer was among United’s most advanced players.
Paul Pogba almost operated as a second striker. Mourinho channelled his inner Tony Pulis in fielding a front pair the size of the Frenchman and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The giants could have combined to deadly effect but, when Pogba found his friend with a measured cross, Ibrahimovic angled his header away from goal. It was emblematic of the lack of quality of both sides.
And that, in its own way, was telling. Liverpool had impressed against the best. They had beaten Arsenal, Chelsea and Leicester City, and were the superior side in a draw with Tottenham Hotspur. This was their poorest performance against elite opponents. United may deem that a feather in their cap.
It had a significance at the start of a defining week. It will be instructive if they are as negative when Mourinho returns to Chelsea on Sunday. In the meantime, after defeat to Manchester City, United have at least shown more nous against a peer, even if Mourinho has not yet emulated a predecessor. The unlamented Louis van Gaal had a 100 per cent record against Liverpool in the league, although not in the Europa League. Mourinho began with a perfect defensive record. But then he has always been a connoisseur of a clean sheet.
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