da cassino： Jose Mourinho may have viewed a scoreless draw at Anfield as a moral victory for his title-chasing Manchester United side, but the true after-effects of the Portuguese’s stunted ambition away from home will be felt this weekend.
da bet7： We’re only nine fixtures into the new Premier League season and yet the 12.30pm kickoff with Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on Saturday already represents a must-win game in the context of the Red Devils’ title plans. A draw this time will feel more like a defeat.
Accepting a few logical assumptions, chiefly that Mourinho will take the Anfield-esque avoid-defeat-at-all-costs approach into all of his away games against big six opposition this season, United can hope at most for four more points from those fixtures. That means their closest title rivals Manchester City only need two wins against the big six on the road to trump United’s total against the same opponents.
Pep Guardiola’s men have already beaten Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, so a victory at Old Trafford, Anfield, Wembley or the Emirates Stadium will be enough on its own.
Judging by their form so far, City will expect to claim more than six points from those five away games and the next logical assumption is that they probably will; they took four last season in an inconsistent campaign by Guardiola’s usual standards and are a far more convincing, formidable and fearsome side this time around.
Accordingly, for Mourinho to justify his pragmatic approach on the road, Manchester United must make up the difference against the big six at home, or else hope City eventually come unstuck at the hands of the Premier League’s more workaday sides – something which very little evidence currently supports as their decimating form shows little signs of relenting. In fact, United are already five points behind their noisy neighbours, so the need to make up the difference – even without the Anfield draw’s impact on the remaining heavyweight contests – is already significant.
And yet, of all the teams United will face at Old Trafford this season, perhaps excepting City themselves, Tottenham are who Mourinho will be most reluctant to attack. The Lilywhites have a perfect away record this season, claiming four wins from four games, and Mauricio Pochettino has even added a new counter-attacking game-plan to his armoury that saw Spurs draw at the Bernabeu and beat Liverpool last weekend while averaging just 35% possession.
Much of that is owed to the imperious performances of Harry Kane, who has been more devastating on the break than ever this season, and Tottenham’s newfound ability to lure teams onto them using a back five. The game-plan worked perfectly at Wembley against Liverpool and Mourinho will be concerned that it could have a similar effect at Old Trafford if his side push too high up the pitch in search of all three points.
The consequential feeling is one of Mourinho’s hands being tied; while he can hope to eke out a one-nil victory over the Lilywhites provided by a cliched moment of brilliance or madness, opening his side up for a more ambitious and expansive game, the kind many United fans will expect at home, only plays into the visitors’ hands. That’s a cardinal sin in Mourinho’s book.
The other constraint Mourinho faces is United’s close proximity with Spurs in the league table, something that also owes to leaving Merseyside with just one point. Both on twenty points, the two sides are separated by goal difference alone and defeat at Old Trafford will not only see Tottenham go above them in the table but also put what has largely been a strong start to the season from United into a far more negative context.
Likewise, and perhaps most significantly, while there is a feeling at Wembley of Tottenham looking upwards into the title race, those at Old Trafford are likely looking downwards at those who could catch them up. If the justification for the draw at Anfield was to avoid a debasing psychological blow so early in the season, surely the same logic applies to the Tottenham clash this weekend considering how significant those three points could be in shaping the seasons of both clubs.
But whatever path the United boss chooses take, there is inevitable risk involved. Either Mourinho shows a more daring and positive streak at Old Trafford in search of a win, allowing Kane the kind of space on the counter-attack he’s relentlessly exploited this season, or United set up defensively hoping one player takes the chance that comes to them.
The only alternative is forcing a scoreless stalemate like we saw at Anfield, but that essentially puts the title race into the hands of the rest of the division, hoping they can force a City slip-up that will cancel out the eight-point lead Guardiola’s side could realistically have after the weekend.
Suddenly, settling for an attritonal, uneventful draw at Anfield against a Liverpool side who have won just once in the Premier League since August and already lost to Tottenham and City by considerable margins on the road feels like a wasted opportunity – one that has put more pressure on Saturday’s game than there should be so early this season and one that has unnecessarily amplified its importance.
A win on Merseyside would have given United breathing space; now, anything less than three points will be a defeat.