DON’T RUB IT IN

LIVERPOOL. — Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim was delighted with the intensity his side showed in their breathless 2-2 draw with Premier League leaders Liverpool on Sunday, but said his team’s performance left him wanting more.

A week after Amorim said his reeling team could face the threat of relegation, Lisandro Martinez and Amad Diallo scored United’s first goals in the cauldron of Anfield since 2018, going toe-to-toe with the league’s best team in a well-deserved draw.

“Today I’m allowed to be the only guy upset with the team,” Amorim told reporters.

“But today we were a team.

“I want to see my team play so much better, but I think the most important thing to address today is the mentality. That is the key for everything.

Today, we were a different team, not because of the system, not because of the technical aspect of the game, the tactical aspect of the game.

“We faced the competition in the way that we are supposed to face every day, training and match.

It doesn’t matter the place… we need to face every day like that.”

The draw saw United climb a spot to 13th in the table, still 11 points behind sixth-placed Manchester City and 13 behind fourth-placed Chelsea, but it felt like a win for the delighted travelling United fans who had braved the wintery drive.

United captain Bruno Fernandes, one of their best players on the day, was left frustrated by the game.

“I’m pretty upset,” he said. “If we show this level at Liverpool, first in the league, why can’t we do this everywhere?”

Amorim agreed.

“It’s really clear,” he said.

“We lost three games in a row at home, some of the games we suffered two goals without doing nothing (defensively).”

Amorim had been optimistic that with no mid-week games, he would finally be able to have a full week of training since his arrival in mid-November.

“I don’t want to use that, but of course, when you train, you understand better the way we play, the positioning, the characteristics of the teammates, the things are really important.

But I don’t want to use that today,” he said. — Reuters.