THE Stretford End were singing it with sarcasm after Marcus Rashford had drilled Manchester United into an early two-goal lead.
“Park the bus, park the bus, Man United,” they bellowed “playing football the Mourinho way”.
By the end, though, the stats suggested their tongue-in-cheek tone was misplaced.
Liverpool enjoyed 68 per cent of possession, forced ten corners to United’s one and produced 11 shots on goal, while Mourinho’s men mustered just five in their 2-1 win.
This truly was football the Mourinho way. Two long balls up to the hugely-effective Romelu Lukaku, two emphatic finishes from Rashford, then a red wall erected on the edge of United’s 18-yard box.
And, frankly, why not? Because for all those apparently unfavourable numbers, David De Gea didn’t have to make a meaningful save and Liverpool only made it interesting thanks to a freakish own goal from the otherwise-excellent Eric Bailly.
United deserved to win playing this way. And perhaps they might be better off without Paul Pogba.
The Frenchman’s relationship with his manager has not been all hearts and flowers.
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And the gashed shin he suffered in training on Friday made it easier for United to bypass their midfield, forcing a much-fancied Liverpool on to the back foot.
Mourinho said: “The first half gave us the chance to be aggressive, direct, fast and intense and to score goals.”
And there was a focus and a drive about United which has not often been present since Alexis Sanchez and Pogba had been crowbarred into the same team.
It wasn’t that Sanchez came into his own here. The Chilean continues to give the ball away too often and again struggled to impose himself. But there were times at Crystal Palace last Monday, for instance, when the two United Galacticos were almost tripping over one another’s feet.
Mourinho was in his element here, criticising his own fans for berating Scott McTominay’s decision to play a backward pass.
He then provoked booing when he hauled off Rashford 20 minutes from time to replace him with their bogeyman, Marouane Fellaini.
United don’t pay their manager to compere a song-and-dance cabaret. They pay him to win football matches.
And United’s last three Premier League matches have produced three very decent ones — victories over Chelsea and Liverpool either side of a comeback from two goals down to win at Crystal Palace.
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While Mourinho and Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp may have very different philosophies, the German sounded as pragmatic as the Portuguese afterwards.
Klopp said: “It’s all about winning. Manchester City won here with two set-pieces and United scored with two situations that had nothing to do with style.
“It was about second balls — our mistakes had nothing to do with systems.”
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These A-list Premier League fixtures get analysed to hell and back but this result had an awful lot to do with United’s big man Lukaku out-muscling Liverpool’s big man Dejan Lovren.
United had condemned Egyptian star Mo Salah to an afternoon of anonymity and only Bailly’s inadvertently cute finish caused any trouble for De Gea.
They call this the English Clasico but it has not been a patch on the Spanish original version for many seasons now.
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