Jose Mourinho runs out of excuses for toxic habitat

Daniel Storey looks back at the weekend's soccer news

Mourinho does not deserve to keep his job

The match may well have been in the balance until Xherdan Shaqiri’s introduction as a substitute, but that only paints a picture for those who didn’t actually watch the game. Manchester United were humiliated at Anfield, totally outplayed by a club who they used to consider as rivals.

This was an embarrassment for Jose Mourinho, who will continue to deflect attention but has run out of any excuses. If the treatment he receives from rival supporters sounds fierce and crowing, that is only because he treated his rivals in the same manner when he was successful. But that success is now long gone. He is a shell of the manager that could motivate a team to fight on.

Every single Manchester United player looks shorn of confidence. From the miserable defence that has already conceded more goals than in the whole of last season, to the midfield that cannot string three passes together to the forwards whose first touches are diabolical.

These are not bad players, whatever their form. All have succeeded at Manchester United or elsewhere. But all succeeded outside a toxic environment and within a consistent system that helped them flourish. They are a group devoid of confidence, made miserable by their habitat. And that’s on the manager.

Alisson picks the worst time to blunder

Alisson has probably been the best goalkeeper in the Premier League this season. Part of the reason for Manchester United’s dismal results is that David de Gea has dropped from his previous superhuman form. But Liverpool’s goalkeeper picked the worst possible time to commit a shambolic error and hand Manchester United an equaliser.

Alisson is a fabulous shot stopper and was signed largely for his excellence with ball at feet, but he will know only too well that mistakes such as these stick in the mind. Any goalkeeper for a title-challenging side will spend long periods of matches with little to do, and Alisson was a spectator for the first quarter of the game at Anfield. His first serious contribution was an assist for Jesse Lingard’s goal.

Hazard the leader of Chelsea’s surge

Eden Hazard cops plenty of flak for not being Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, against whom he undoubtedly falls slightly short. But then Messi and Ronaldo are two of the greatest to have ever played the game, and also play for clubs who regularly dominate their domestic league.

Hazard gets kicked from pillar to post, has seen Chelsea regularly change managers and therefore been positioned in any number of different systems. If the unsubtle flirting with Real Madrid does leave a sour taste, he is hardly alone in that.

Most significantly, Hazard leads Chelsea time and time again and his club depend on him more than almost any other team in world football. There are only two players in Europe’s top five leagues who have at least eight goals and eight assists in 2018/19: Hazard and Messi. The Belgian deserves to be hailed for what he is rather than criticised for what he isn’t.

Arsenal’s goalkeeping mess costs them dear

Bernd Leno was not the only one at fault for Arsenal’s defeat to Southampton. Laurent Koscielny looked

incredibly rusty as his comeback from injury continued, while Stephan Lichtsteiner is

not a capable central defender. Leno is having to play behind almost continuously changing cast of defenders.

But the German goalkeeper was still at fault for Southampton’s winner. Shane Long’s chipped cross was placed perfectly for Charlie Austin, but Leno can only commit himself so emphatically if he is sure that he will get the ball. Instead he gave Austin an empty net.

For all Arsenal’s improvement under Emery, their defensive incompetence was always going to trip them up. There’s only so many times you can fall behind - nine times already in 17 matches - and hope to claw back victory. Their top-four hopes depend upon significant improvement or January investment.

Benitez proving worth again

If you judged Newcastle’s squad player by player, there would probably be seven or eight Championship clubs who could outdo them on talent. Those clubs have probably spent more on transfer fees than Newcastle too.

But this great club has one asset that they would not swap with almost any club in Europe. There are few better managers at organising a defence that performs at a level greater than the sum of its component parts than Rafael Benitez. That ability may well be saviour of Newcastle’s Premier League status for the second successive season.

Against Huddersfield, Newcastle were second best for most of the game. They are creating far too few chances for Benitez’s liking. But the defensive resilience that the manager has instilled, no matter which players are picked to start, always gives Newcastle a chance of nicking something. Having six teams below them at this stage of the season should be considered a notable success.

Pochettino and Spurs continue to find a way

Sean Dyche expressed frustration that his Burnley team had finally been undone by a fairly regulation long ball forward having repelled everything else that Tottenham had thrown at them, but there is no doubt that the home side were worthy of their victory.

This was a landmark win for Mauricio Pochettino, who has reached 100 league wins in charge of Tottenham and has done so in a quicker time than any manager in Premier League history at a single club bar Alex Ferguson (Manchester United) and Jose Mourinho (Chelsea).

Given the resources at his disposal, that is a remarkable achievement. There will be those detractors who say that he has achieved nothing until a trophy victory, but it has never been harder to bridge financial inequality and keep a team in the top four. All the signs suggest that Tottenham will do it again in 2018/19.