Jose Mourinho has often given mixed thoughts on Liverpool, but since leaving Old Trafford he has been very complimentary of the Reds in Europe.
Speaking to RT, the former Chelsea boss admitted he wasn’t surprised by Barcelona’s collapse at Anfield and claims you cannot expect to do well in the red cauldron.
“Anfield didn’t surprise me. Jurgen [Klopp] didn’t surprise me. The relationship between the crowd, stadium, the players. That empathy – it didn’t surprise me”, he said. “How Barcelona can be surprised by that is my question, you cannot win in Anfield without a very competitive spirit.
“You know that it’s going to happen. Even if you go to Anfield and are dominant it’s almost impossible, at this level, that you are dominant for 90 minutes.
“Barca didn’t go there to defend a huge advantage, they didn’t go there to be defensive and wait for [Lio] Messi or [Luis] Suarez to score a goal. They were also not the team that thinks ‘we are better than them’, ‘we have better players’, ‘we are going to score and kill [the game]’.
“They conceded a goal and they are in control until end of the first half. Then in the second half – [the] second goal and mentally, even physically, collapse.”
Mourinho has visited Anfield 14 times with Chelsea and Manchester United and has walked away with five victories. The boss has actually faced the Reds 28 times in his career and we’ve clearly left an impact on the man.
He’s faced Barcelona 27 times in his career so he definitely knows what he’s talking about on this one.
Jose raises a good question – why didn’t Barca anticipate a vicious attempt to comeback? Did they expect Liverpool to just give up? Do they know nothing about us?
You’d think they’d have learnt from last season’s humbling at the hands of Roma.
Watch a clip of Mourinho’s interview below:
Mourinho on Anfield & Barca's collapse pic.twitter.com/ZW1du5Pi5c
— MB (@MrBoywunder) May 10, 2019