Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp emerges with credit once again as United's Jose Mourinho blows big chance

It could be described as a triumph of sorts for Jose Mourinho. The best managers find a way to affect games and, with his side losing to Liverpool, he brought on first Wayne Rooney and then Marouane Fellaini. Manchester United adopted a more direct approach when the Belgian came on. It paid dividends as Rooney crossed, Fellaini hit the post, Antonio Valencia chipped the ball up and Zlatan Ibrahimovic finished.

Ignominy averted. The unbeaten run was extended to a 16th game. United remained in touch with the top six. And yet that version of events ignores a record which is at odds with most in Mourinho’s career. He has tended to specialise in overcoming the elite managers, but he is still yet to record a meaningful win over Jurgen Klopp. A Champions League semi-final second leg scarcely counts when the first is lost 4-1 and the German’s side progress to the final, as happened when Real Madrid faced Borussia Dortmund in 2013.

And while they have twice shared the points this season, Mourinho will rarely be afforded a better chance. Liverpool fielded their weakest team of the league campaign in their biggest game of the season. They were winless in 2017, goalless in their previous two games. They seemed to have lost their dynamism. United were in outstanding form.

Yet it was Liverpool who were six minutes from victory, Liverpool who forced United to alter their tactics, Liverpool who should derive satisfaction from more of their players’ performances. Much as Jose Mourinho seems to exert a hold over Arsene Wenger, Klopp continues to have a vastly superior record in his private duel with Portuguese. To use their chosen nicknames, it was the Special One against the Normal One. Normality threatened to prove superior.

Without yielding three points, Klopp illustrated his prowess as a tactician and a man-manager. Klopp surprised Mourinho by fielding a midfield diamond and two strikers. The success of his system could be judged by the way United changed shape at half-time.

Belief plays an integral part in the German’s management. He exudes confidence, even in a depleted team. Liverpool began as though they were the hot favourites, not the side without a win in 2017. It seemed proof his attitude is infectious. Liverpool showed a can-do mentality. It enabled them to shrug off the absence of Joel Matip, ludicrously unavailable as FIFA ignored their many attempts to determine if he is eligible for club duty during the African Cup of Nations, despite retiring from international football in 2015. They were epitomised by James Milner, nerveless penalty-taker and part of a makeshift back four that included the 18-year-old Trent Alexander-Arnold, whose first Premier League start was an admirable affair.

Yet Mourinho’s previously watertight defence was unlocked by their own most expensive addition. Paul Pogba has become the first Premier League player to have his own Twitter emoji; quite how others have survived without that accolade is a mystery, but even with it being displayed around Old Trafford, it hardly helped. The Hand of Pog, rather than his face, proved decisive. Pogba conceded the penalty Milner scored.

Thereafter it became a damage-limitation exercise for a United team who missed too many chances. Even as Ibrahimovic denied Liverpool a victory that, after triumphs at the Emirates Stadium and Stamford Bridge, would have completed a notable hat-trick this season, they nonetheless extended their formidable record against their peers. They remain the only members of the top six who are unbeaten against the others, whereas United still have a sole win, against Tottenham, in such summit clashes. That is testament to Klopp. He emerged in credit from another game where, as both dropped points, the real winners were Chelsea.