Jurgen Klopp has taken a swipe at Jose Mourinho and Manchester United for the club’s struggles in the Europa League. The Liverpool boss says that United may very well drop out of the Europa League, and will have to worry about the domestic competitions alone from January. His sarcastic comments about the Red Devils will probably affect Mourinho the most. The Portuguese boss has made it no secret that he does not rate the Europa League much.

Even though he took over a Chelsea team that had won the Europa League back in 2013, Mourinho claimed that all that mattered to him was doing well in the Champions League. Since those comments, the Portuguese was a major factor in Chelsea dropping out of Europe altogether this season. There is also a grave danger of United ending up the same way if their poor run continues.

Mourinho has changed his opinions about the competition in recent times, but largely because it now offers a route to the group stages of the Champions League.

Jose Mourinho always seemed envy clubs which did not have any European commitments but were still involved in the title or top four race. Liverpool have been in the situation and invariably they found themselves being mocked by the Portuguese. Klopp appears to have taken the same route, as he feels that United may very well be without any form of European football come January. According to Sky Sports, he said:

“What is an advantage? It’s only our situation, nothing else.

“When I was in Europe, I never thought ‘this is too much’. We just have to show that we use the extra time for training.

“Do you ask Antonio Conte about this every week? Maybe Man United will have it from January. Maybe ask them. Maybe it’s not a positive thing [losing] and then from January, it’s very positive not being in Europe anymore.”

The 2-1 loss against Fenerbahce sees United drop down to the third place in their Europa League group. Two games remain for the Red Devils with one of them being away from home against Zorya. Considering the club’s extremely poor away form in Europe over the last 10 games, it may be highly unlikely that the club would win the remaining two matches.

Liverpool are level on points with table leaders Manchester City, while Arsenal and Chelsea are also close. The club seems to have made the progression from top four contenders to title challengers under the leadership of the Jurgen Klopp. Liverpool could have topped the table had it not been for the two dropped points against Manchester United at home a few weeks ago. The German was understandably unhappy with the defensive tactics of Mourinho, and he appears to have just spilled any simmering tension.

The Merseyside club have certainly been able to benefit from the lack of midweek European matches, although Klopp says that it is not much of an advantage. The impressive form shown by Chelsea in recent weeks also suggest that the additional rest certainly can make a difference during the weekend.