Mourinho: Liverpool Building "An Amazing House"
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho says Liverpool's spending means little without the silverware to back it up
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."
When quizzed on Liverpool's recent spending amid a relative paucity of investment in his own squad, Mourinho replied: "It's not just about the money they spend in the summer, it is about many things.
"It's not just about spending money and reinforcing the squad, a football team is more than that. It's like a house: it's not just about buying the furniture, you have to do work, you spend money on the best possible furniture and then you're ready to live in an amazing house."
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.
"There will be, I don't want to say a test, but a little introduction to training to see the answer, adaptation and to see if we can increase a little bit tomorrow to have them for Sunday," he said. "But for sure, I hope, it's better not to say for sure. I hope some will be available but for sure some will not be.
"I'm going to try [to win]. I always try and I want to play a team that is capable to be with me on that desire and on that ambition and on that confidence.
"We know that we are going to play against the leader, against a team on a high, but we have our qualities, we have our potential and even with the problems we have and the doubts in terms of team choice, tactics, approach, philosophy, we have doubts about everything but we are going to arrive with the players we have available and going to have a team capable of going there and fighting for the victory."
