Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag told his players he was “very proud” of their performance in Sunday’s 0-0 draw at Liverpool.
The Red Devils went into the weekend’s fixture at Anfield as heavy underdogs following their poor start to the 2023/24 season, while their 7-0 defeat to Jurgen Klopp’s side in March was a prominent talking point leading up to this most recent meeting.
But United produced a resolute defensive display and were able to restrict Liverpool mostly to shots from distance and aimless crosses, while the best chances of the game fell to Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund.
At his post-match press conference, Ten Hag was asked what he told his players after such a fine battling performance.
“I said that after the game in the dressing room: I’m very proud of this team. We should do this more often. I said this,” Ten Hag replied.
“For instance, Newcastle [a 1-0 loss] was also a tough game, we make one mistake, we switch off and concede the goal. But when you stay in the game, when you are disciplined in your game plan, finally it opens up and you can take your chances or get two, three, four passes in after the ball regains, get the switches in and then you can really be more dominant in the game.
“We mentioned [the 7-0] but I said to them last year we played them three times, we lost one time but we beat them two times. We are capable of beating Liverpool and we proved today we are capable of if we bring this every game on the pitch.
“First of all, we are a hard team to beat but from that point, we can go and win games and also big games.”
United return to action on Saturday with a trip to West Ham, while Liverpool host Premier League title rivals Arsenal.
