Jose Mourinho: Manchester United Boss Expects More From Paul Pogba

Back-to-back defeats to potential rivals Liverpool and Arsenal last month were a significant setback, but Chelsea recovered with wins over Hull City and champions Leicester City in its last two outings.

Paul Pogba’s string of poor performances for Manchester United continued after yet another tame outing against Liverpool. How many shots on target did Liverpool have?

Mourinho, won three Premier League titles, an FA Cup and three League Cups during his two spells at Chelsea, says he is unconcerned about the reception from fans. Can went very close after Joel Matip strode into midfield and set the German up for a tight shot, but De Gea was alert and made a very good save.

But despite admitting he was happy with a first home clean sheet of the season, Reds boss Klopp was largely critical of Liverpool’s performance. It is their problem, not our problem. “I thought they were waiting for an easy match for them but it wasn’t”. “I think we’ll be challenging this season”.

“It wasn’t our best game but we played better than Manchester United”.

“Whether or not they’ll have a chance of winning the League, it’s not beyond them but I think it’s quite unlikely”.

“We stopped them playing, but they also did very well from a defensive point of view”.

“They played [Emre] Can and [Jordan] Henderson for some reason and they did that for 90 minutes when they normally project more players in attack”, Mourinho was quoted as saying by The Guardian. The man-marking is really hard, they are stronger than us.

“I will always respect them”.

“One of these is, for sure, [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic”.

Opta statistics, quoted by Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, suggested a mere 35 per cent ball possession – the lowest by a United team in the Premier League era – but Mourinho insisted it was 42 per cent.

Forlan also spent his column looking ahead to Sunday’s game at Stamford Bridge between the two clubs, as well as the return of Jose Mourinho to his old club.

“They know we’re a really strong team, so that’s a compliment for us”. They had that chance with Ibrahimovic.

“I can not say I care because I have a job to do and I will be more focused on the game”, he said. We have to stay cool.

The former Real Madrid manager will hope to secure United’s first win against Chelsea in seven meetings when both teams clash on Sunday. They belong to my history too. “They tried everything, only with the wrong tools”.

“We weren’t calm enough”. The former hadn’t started in a game since January, the last time United played Liverpool.

Chelsea, who finished 10th in the Premier League last season, failed to qualify for Europe and it was suggested to Conte that would be an advantage, but the Italian begged to differ.