Jose Mourinho did well to arrest the run of defeats a few weeks ago, but the Portuguese still knows that he has a major job on his hands when it comes to reviving Manchester United’s form. Just two wins in the last five matches is not good enough for a team with title aspirations. Manchester United, though, have been boosted by the return of Luke Shaw and Henrikh Mkhitaryan for the game against Liverpool this weekend. It will be a bigger test of United than the Manchester derby a few weeks ago.
Back then, Manchester City were the favourites to win the game even though it was at Old Trafford. It was due to the extremely good record Pep Guardiola has against Mourinho. The weekend, though, sees United and Liverpool step into the pitch as evens in the eyes of many. Liverpool had been on the losing side more often than not in the past decade, but there is a resurgence going under way at Merseyside under the regime of Jurgen Klopp. After four consecutive league victories, Liverpool are best placed to claim a fifth consecutive win in front of the impressive new main stand.
The Monday night game at Anfield will test United to the maximum and it certainly helps that the return of two first-team players offers Mourinho more options.
Mkhitaryan has to deliver a performance straightaway, but this will be his first appearance since the infamous 45-minute show against City a month ago. Mkhitaryan started the game against City only to be withdrawn at the break following a disastrous performance. It was unlike the former Dortmund attacking midfielder, who often comes good in the big matches. It is highly unlikely that he will start the game against Liverpool for two reasons – he has been out for a month and he was not in the best form when he previously played.
Immediately after the game against City, Mourinho dismissed suggestions that he took off Mkhitaryan due to poor form. Instead, it is learnt that the midfielder suffered an injury earlier in the game and Mourinho kept him on in order to avoid embarrassment for the player. According to The Guardian, Mourinho said:
“I didn’t change after 20 minutes because I didn’t want to destroy the players.
“I made a couple of decisions [with the starting line-up] because I thought the individual qualities of certain players would give me what I wanted. But I didn’t get it.”
There was a possibility of Mkhitaryan playing in the World Cup qualifiers for the Armenian team against Poland and Romania, but United requested the Armenian national team to leave out the attacking midfielder due to concerns over his health.
Luke Shaw has also not featured since the middle of September and the defender continues to be unlucky with regard to injuries even under José Mourinho. Shaw was not part of the England squad that played in games against Malta and Slovenia in the World Cup qualifiers.
