On the Spot: Why waking up for Liverpool-Man United wasn't all that bad

Simply looking at the scoreline would probably make you go "huh, what a waste of time." Bore draw, should have slept in.

Not particularly. This was a battle between two managers that knew their opponent's strengths and were afraid to give anything away.

It is easy to criticize Jose Mourinho for "parking the bus" — that is, playing too defensively. This is the same Liverpool side that won only one of its last eight games prior to their Champions League victory against Maribor, and is without its pacy forward Sadio Mane for the near future. Equally as important is to recognize the power and energy in the Liverpool midfield. When one conjures up images of midfielders Emre Can, Georginio Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson, it's easy to see why Mourinho opted for a more defensive approach, especially without the likes of midfielders Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini to match his opponents in the center of the field.

Would Mourinho be happy with the result? Yes. The performance? Not so much. United was dreadful on the counterattack. You can't win the title by only playing good defense away at top teams — you need to be clinical, and United was anything but. The team was less than 50 percent successful with their passes in the final third at Anfield and recorded an overall passing accuracy of just 75.4 percent — its worst this season.

Then there was good old Jurgen Klopp. Perhaps the German should be glad that Mourinho showed enough respect to Liverpool's prowess rather than whining that "you could not do [defensive football] at Liverpool. Obviously for United it is ok." But if Klopp were to truly have gone for the winner, conventional wisdom tells you to replace a midfielder or defender with a forward. And while Klopp did bring on forwards Dominic Solanke and Daniel Sturridge, he opted to swap out Coutinho and Mo Salah, arguably two of his best attacking options in the game. Sure, one could blame it on the international break for the long traveling. But I think that speaks volumes of Klopp — not wanting to risk his own midfield advantage to really go for the victory — and how much Liverpool needs an out-and-out striker that can be trusted to get the goals.

Nine points behind the leaders probably reminds you of Brendan Rodgers' form that got him sacked in 2015–16. But to compare Klopp's and Rodgers' records and thus demand the former be sacked is ridiculous. Klopp needed time to shape his team, and I think if you ask any Liverpool fan, they'd be pretty pleased with Klopp and the team's performance, if not impressed with the results.

I don't think these two teams are where they want to be at right now. For both managers, it's about finding the right mixture of defense and offense: How can Mourinho successfully execute the counterattack against the bigger teams, and how can Klopp get his team to finish its chances?

We're 20 percent through the season. If anything, this past Sunday brought about more questions, answers to which are not necessarily available until December when the season hits squeaky-bum time.