Liverpool victory offers further irrefutable proof that Jose Mourinho’s managerial powers are waning

Whatever particular spell Mourinho once held over Anfield, whatever alchemy he used to frustrate and deny this great rival, is now losing its effectiveness

Did you know that Jose Mourinho is a Liverpool fan? Or was, at least. An admirer of Kevin Keegan, the adolescent Mourinho followed Bob Paisley’s first European Cup-winning side from his comfortable home in Setubal.

It was around this time, coincidentally, that he realised his ambitions of playing football at highest professional level were unrealistic and his journey to becoming one of the most successful coaches of his generation began.

That journey could well have brought him to Anfield’s home dugout at one point. He even suggested Merseyside was his preferred destination in 2004 and the “new project” at Chelsea did not interest him. An early but classic example of Mourinho doublespeak.

Before today, he had visited on 13 separate occasions and left beaten just three times, and with justifiable grievances about the infamous defeat of the three. It was an undeniably excellent for a visiting manager at ground like at Anfield.

And so it seemed like with Barcelona - another club once close to his affections, another he could have managed on an alternative timeline - he appeared to know how to creep under this club’s skin and expose the myths and fables which their success is founded upon.

Yet the evidence in recent years is that whatever particular spell Mourinho held over Anfield, whatever alchemy he used to frustrate and deny this great rival, it is losing its effectiveness. After leaving with two unlikely points at Anfield in the past two years, this time, his Manchester United side were deservedly beaten.

Their defeat had seemed certain from the moment Sadio Mané opened the scoring in the 24^th minute. By that point, Jurgen Klopp’s side had registered 11 shots on David de Gea’s goal with their visitors offering just one in response.

Yet how many of those attempts were rushed, scuffed and inaccurate? For all their early dominance, Liverpool had looked overwrought, a touch too eager. The branding around Anfield this season - and indeed the newly-painted mural of Klopp in the city’s Baltic Triangle - carries the tagline ‘This means more’. But did this mean too much?

The desire to not only record a first league victory over United since 2014 but to record a first Anfield victory over Mourinho since 2007 was obvious in the way passes were skittishly misplaced and first touches were uncharacteristically untidy.

It was as if Mourinho’s mere presence was putting Anfield on edge, as though he could still claim a result simply by being Mourinho’s United. It would be no surprise if that was in fact the full extent of Mourinho’s plan, given his limited and unambitious line-up. When Jesse Lingard capitalised on Alisson’s error to suddenly level, it appeared to be working.

Parity remained until the 72nd minute of this otherwise one-sided affair between English football’s greatest rivals. Mourinho appeared likely to pull off another result against the odds, against expectation and against the run of play. By the 73rd, however, his Manchester United side were beaten.

Jose Mourinho watches on from the touchline (Reuters)

Xherdan Shaqiri’s strike off the underside of the bar meant United now needed a second miracle. Seven minutes later, Shaqiri scored again to ensure they would not get one. Those, unfortunately, are the breaks when you rely on the opposition’s errors rather than any invention of your own.

Mourinho now has a fourth defeat on this ground to add to his record, this one fully deserved. Meanwhile, the three goals conceded mean that United have the fifth-worst defence in the Premier League, worse than second-bottom Huddersfield Town.

If a Mourinho side can no longer count on a sturdy reliable defence, and if that classic Mourinho set piece - the unlikely Anfield result - is no longer in his repertoire, what does that say? Only what is becoming clearer with every poor United result this season: that this managerial great’s powers are undeniably, irreversibly waning.