‘Trophies matter too!’ Jose Mourinho fires jibe at Liverpool

Jose Mourinho insists trophies matter as he prepares his Manchester United side to face Premier League leaders Liverpool.

Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side are unbeaten after 16 league games this season and are 16 points ahead of United, who sit sixth.

However, Klopp has so far failed to deliver any silverware in his three years at Anfield despite some significant spending in the transfer market in the last 12 months in particular.

And Mourinho, who won the EFL Cup and Europa League in his first season at United, believes teams should be judged on the prizes they win, even if he considers Liverpool to have strengthened impressively in their quest to end a 28-year top-flight title drought.

When asked if trophies matter, he told a news conference: “I don’t know, it depends on the way you approach it. I think trophies matter, especially when you have the potential to fight for trophies and especially when you clearly say the objective is to win the trophy.

“I think sometimes to just say [that] is not very intelligent, but when you have the potential, you have nothing to hide, you know from day one your potential and your desire has a relation with the potential.

“But I think Jurgen told already they want to win the Premier League. It’s their objective.”

United face something of an injury crisis heading into Sunday’s game, with Alexis Sanchez and Victor Lindelof definitely ruled out and several others facing a race to be fit, including Anthony Martial, Luke Shaw, Chris Smalling, Marcos Rojo and Matteo Darmian.

Mourinho was unwilling to speculate on who will be available, but he stressed United would still head to Merseyside aiming to win.