Manchester United have Jose Mourinho and David de Gea to thank for holding Liverpool to lifeless draw

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Yet another bad Liverpool-Manchester United game, that doesn’t do anyone all that much good, even if Jose Mourinho will be the happier manager. The Portuguese once again put out the type of negative gameplan at Anfield - and, it must be said, a general top-six away game - that has a lifeless 0-0 draw as its most logical consequence.

From Red Monday to dead Saturday. That game-plan did duly frustrate Liverpool, who once again proved themselves wasteful and lacking in confidence in what has been a concerning drop-off in form, but this should be someway frustrating for United too.

If there was ever to be a top-six away game where they could finally come out and play and assert themselves, it was this, when they were supposedly on such fine attacking form and against a Liverpool team who have been so uncertain and so porous at the back.

This could and probably should have been a title statement of a performance, that also totally killed Liverpool’s title challenge.

It instead just killed the game, and won’t exactly frighten Manchester City.

There was absolutely none of the football from this possibly illusory start to the season that everyone has been talking about.

The only talking points were instead how typically dreadful the game was, how typically excellent one David De Gea save was - from Joel Matip on 34 minutes - and how referee Martin Atkinson didn’t issue more bookings, if not a red card.

There can be questions about Romelu Lukaku, Alberto Moreno and Matteo Darmian in that regard, but those questions alone say an awful lot of the match.

It certainly wasn’t a game that was in-keeping with the pre-match tribute to Kenny Dalglish, who had a stand named after him, and who once so illuminated this fixture and this stadium. There was here only irritation, not least from Lukaku. He snapped at Joe Gomez and snatched at the one chance he got, this time not benefitting from a rebound.

You could someway understand the Belgian’s agitation meanwhile, given that he was so isolated for so much of the match. There was usually a gap of 30 yards between him and the next United player, who was generally sat so deep. Many might see that as a consequence of Mourinho missing his preferred midfield three, but then Jurgen Klopp was missing Sadio Mane - the type of player who demands you stay back so space isn’t left in behind for him to exploit.

That responsibility was instead left to Mohamed Salah, but he instead provided justification as to why Mourinho sold him when Chelsea manager, why the Egyptian feels just short of the standard required to be a starter for a properly title-challenging team. He isn’t the finished article, and that is so evident in his finishing. Salah can just be so frustrating in that regard, as if he isn’t confident enough how he strikes the ball so doesn’t really strike it at all.

The very imperfect follow-up from De Gea’s supreme save on 34 minutes did perfectly display this. Rather than let the ball run to Coutinho, Salah insisted on taking it only to suddenly not be so sure, and play it rather feebly wide.

It happens so often, and is all the more conspicuous because it offers such a contrast to the ruthlessness and incision of his initial running with the ball. One touch to humiliate Matteo Darmian was devastating… but he couldn’t really develop from that.

It said much that Klopp was left with no option but to take him off, but the greater issue is that Salah himself personify wider problems with this Liverpool team; how they can’t make the leap.

Mourinho’s gameplan shouldn’t take responsibility away from Klopp. Liverpool again worked the angles and did occasionally looked threatening, but once again struggled against a side that stands off.

It is the main challenge confronting Klopp, and one he looks no closer to solving; why they look destined to be little more than the United of the 1980s - a side that entertains and dazzles, and does well in cups, but won’t win a league.

But then what of United’s league changes?

This might superficially seem one of those stable away results that keeps you ticking over, but there is something deeper here that warrants discussion.

The power balance of the current Premier League and strength of the big six dictate that results between those top teams are more important than ever. They are now what really swing the title race, given the big clubs sweep away the rest of the division with greater regularity.

So, while Mourinho’s tactics in last season’s 0-0 here were more understandable because it wasn’t his team, these were not.

Well, they were understandable from one perspective. It’s just Mourinho’s nature.

It is just one other reason, mind, why the nature of this once great fixture is to be so grim as a contest.