The bore draw at Anfield on Monday flushed out the same old criticism that Mourinho has faced down throughout his career. United did well to shackle Liverpool but it came at the expense of playing its own brand of attacking football. It was stultifying stuff and could garner only qualified praise. With talent like Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Juan Mata available, there exists a school of thought that United should be on the front foot and not the back one against teams of similar stature.
Didn’t that come in the game against Leicester City? Not really. The champions aren’t themselves this season, as acknowledged by Claudio Ranieri this week.