Liverpool vs Manchester United: Jose Mourinho will relish the chance to frustrate Jurgen Klopp again

There must be moments when Jose Mourinho and Jurgen Klopp look across the touchline at each other and wonder how and when things switched.

For the Manchester United manager, it’s said he genuinely bristles at how Klopp is now seen as the bright young thing everyone is in thrall to, in the way Mourinho himself used to be. For the Liverpool manager, there was the way his teams used to almost effortlessly beat Mourinho’s – Borussia Dortmund hammering Real Madrid 4-1, Liverpool eviscerating Chelsea 3-1 – only to now find every match against the Portuguese such a tedious struggle with little release.

This is the dynamic that will influence Sunday’s latest grand meeting between the two, just as the clubs have somewhat switched places too.

While so much has been made of how United are effectively Liverpool of the early 90s, Liverpool might like to hope they are United of the early 90s. One is now finding their history of success a heavy weight, the other giddily hoping the near future might end a long wait.

Liverpool’s current form, on the back of some intelligent and steady squad building under a charismatic figurehead of a manager, has them rightfully thinking this might actually be – yes – their year.

It’s just that this fixture hasn’t recently been their day. If United should have some fear about facing this Liverpool now, having only won one in six, they should have no fear about going to Anfield.

Liverpool haven’t beaten United there in the league since September 2013 and haven’t even scored against them there since March 2015, with Mourinho amping all of that up.

The Portuguese has dug in and extended his club’s overall unbeaten league run against their greatest rivals to eight matches, having been in charge of the last four.

It means that, even allowing for Liverpool’s own unbeaten start to this season, there is naturally some trepidation about the return of Mourinho to Anfield … and timely return of some semblance of United form. It would be just him to do it.

There can be no playing down the pleasure Mourinho would take from being the manager to both end Klopp’s undefeated run and knock Liverpool back off the top of the table so quickly, as Manchester City face Everton. There should also be no underestimating the Portuguese’s ability to do this. No matter how his sides are playing, it has always remained within Mourinho’s powers to rouse them for individual games, to display an instance of the old intensity – particularly for those games where very pointed contrasts are made between him and the opposition manager. His personal pride is too great, and would be too stung.

Many United sources feel all of this is connected, and explain how he keeps getting results against Liverpool. Mourinho has already made a few public jibes about Klopp’s behaviour on the touchline, and the feeling is that reflects a greater private antipathy.

Take one story from the summer of 2016, when the Portuguese first joined United, and Antonio Conte and Pep Guardiola joined the Premier League. Mourinho was about to do a corporate event and generally sat there looking to just get on with it, until it was explained to him how he would be introduced. The presenter would list all of these famous names and their great records, purposely leaving the Portuguese off, so he could then appear on stage.

Except, in rehearsing this, the presenter didn’t quite get to the end of the list.

Mourinho interjected. “Not Klopp,” he said, when he heard the German’s name. “He hasn’t won anything.”

When this was naturally disputed, Mourinho referenced the number of second-place finishes Klopp has endured, and the fact that Bayern Munich were “shit” when the German won his two Bundesliga titles with Borussia Dortmund.

One source mentioned how, as much as anything, there was just no need to labour this point just before going on stage.

Whatever the depth of Mourinho’s own feelings, it is a story that does reflect some wider doubts about Klopp, especially in Italy. Managers the Portuguese is friendly with have dismissed Klopp as little more than “a motivator”, with his animated personality also thereby exaggerating his reputation.

Add such views to Mourinho’s own complicated relationship with Liverpool the club, as well as United’s historic rivalry, and it’s easy to see how he would really concentrate on this one; how he would whip up extra motivation. Some United sources similarly expect him to play Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard and Ander Herrera for this game, because of Mourinho’s own intelligent understanding of how fixtures as special as this do require players who “get it”.

It plays into the psychological difference of United in these games.

But it’s still a difference that only goes so far, and an approach that only goes so far – almost literally.

The majority of Mourinho’s matches with United against Klopp have still only been draws. That has been the case with three of the four, with those at Anfield two of the most notoriously dull 0-0s in recent Premier League history.

In that regard, it’s not like that rivalry has switched to the point where United are sweeping Liverpool away. They’ve just been stopping them, with that apparently the limit of the ambitions, and the approach.

There’s a greater intensity about United’s defending, sure, but it’s still mostly just defending and then hoping to nick something. They haven’t got very far up the pitch.

For some at Anfield, this feeds into the stories that there is a personal motivation for Mourinho. There is a feeling that he just can’t countenance a defeat to Liverpool and Klopp, so in that regard a draw is as good as a win, and he has the tools to set up that way.

It’s also, however, why there is a greater optimism about Liverpool going into the fixture. Klopp’s side have generally struggled against Mourinho’s United because they were less mature than now, and would thereby get frustrated when a less varied tactical approach would be foiled. Liverpool would just end up trying to force it too much, and do nothing. There was then the anxiety at the other end about the lack of aerial presence and a formidable goalkeeper against players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marouane Fellaini. Hence Mourinho could be justifiably happy to just sit deep and deny Liverpool the space they usually thrive on.

But a lot of that has changed.

They have been nowhere near as gung-ho, with many putting that down to the connected consequences of the greater assurance that comes from Virgil van Dijk and Allison, fostering this growing maturity. Tuesday against Napoli is seen as an example to follow. Whereas a widespread expectation had been it would be a high-scoring game that Liverpool would need to win by more than two goals, they consciously refused to embrace the chaos. They instead needed a 1-0 win and – one nervy moment aside – got a 1-0 win.

In other words, they don’t need to be as fearful as what a tepid United can do to them at the back, but feel they have more about them going forward; more measure; more match-winners. A good bet could be Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri to play, or to come on, if United fully withdraw.

They feel they can switch things. Mourinho will feel he can frustrate things.

The wider hope, however, is that it for once isn’t a game you would otherwise switch off.