- De Gea with two fantastic saves
- Mourinho jams midfield
- Reds find form in second half
- Rooney subs in late
Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United stifled Liverpool and took a point from Anfield in a 0-0 draw on Monday.
[ MORE: 3 things learned ]
Liverpool fails to draw level with Manchester City and Arsenal, instead staying in fourth 17 points. United remains 7th, now with 14 points.
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Chippy fouls were the name of the game early, and there wasn’t a lot to entertain outside of the supporters’ din.
[ MORE: Mourinho slams Liverpool ]
Manchester United limited room for Liverpool’s talented attackers to turn or move with the ball in the midfield, as Red Devils’ back occasionally darted into the middle third to stop a turn.
A late Philippe Coutinho free kick threatened to entertain, but was sailed into the hands of David De Gea.
Through dogged work, the Reds were able to occasionally tempt the final third only to find United just as resolved inside their 18. It wasn’t quite parking the bus, but defense-first is certainly an appropriate description for Jose Mourinho’s tactics.
Fun? No. Effective? See below.
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2 - Liverpool have managed just two shots so far, their joint-lowest total in the first half of a PL home game (since 2003-04). Subdued.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 17, 2016
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Paul Pogba sent a terrific cross to Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the 55th minute in a rare moment of excitement, but Ibrahimovic’s nod back across the six was met only by grass.
Emre Can then provided a rare Liverpool moment of threat in the 59th minute, with De Gea getting vertical to slap away a shot.
De Gea made sure he had the best two saves of the match when he launched toward the upper 90 to palm Coutinho’s rip away from the frame.
Mourinho swapped Rashford for Wayne Rooney with about 12 minutes to play.
The next big moment was a break for Roberto Firmino that was thwarted by an incredible sliding recovery tackle from Antonio Valencia.