Comments at Liverpool indicate manager sniffs weakness in Klopp but game raised questions about his own tactics
In its own way, the post-match interview was a classic of its type. There was José Mourinho, rumpled, bestubbled, firing off his darts. The headline claim, perhaps, was that he thought Tottenham had been the better team in their defeat at Liverpool, but there was also the suggestion of a conspiracy against him, poor, misunderstood, put-upon José, and with it a jibe at Jürgen Klopp. And that was when it occurred that Mourinho means this: he is mobilising; he thinks Tottenham could actually win this.
As yet Klopp v Mourinho has been a rivalry that hasn’t really ignited. That could be about to change – and, for all that the world had begun to tire of the Mourinho mind games, that could be fascinating. Until this season, Klopp had largely avoided the wars of words that have been such a key part of the Premier League soap opera. But in the past few weeks, another side of Klopp has emerged. Injuries and some tight VAR decisions going against Liverpool seem to have rattled him, as witnessed in his spikiness in interviews, most obviously to BT Sport’s Des Kelly after the draw at Brighton, and the unseemly and largely pointless running battle with Chris Wilder.
Written by Jonathan Wilson
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/dec/17/jose-mourinho-believes-spurs-can-win-the-title-liverpool-klopp under the title “
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