Ruben Amorim believes a mentality shift was behind Manchester United's admirable performance in their 2-2 draw with Liverpool.

United took a 1-0 lead with their first goal at Anfield in 512 minutes through Lisandro Martinez and recovered from conceding two goals in 11 minutes to equalise through Amad.

Harry Maguire had a glorious chance to claim United's first victory at Liverpool in nine years in the 97th minute but lifted his close-range shot over the crossbar.

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The draw ended a run of three successive Premier League defeats for United, who have now taken four points from away fixtures against Liverpool and Manchester City.

"I want to see my team play so much better but I think the most important thing to address today is the mentality and that is the key for everything," Amorim stressed. "Today we were a different team not because of the system, not because of a technical aspect of the game, the tactical aspect of the game.

"We faced the competition in the way we are supposed to face every day. Training and match, it doesn’t match the place, the opponent, we need to face every day like that."

Amorim said on the eve of the match United players were "afraid" and "starving for leaders". The pep talk elicited a gutsy reaction from the players at Anfield as United went toe-to-toe with the Premier League leaders.

"I’m trying that every day," Amorim said of his pre-match rhetoric. "I’m trying to push this team every day. Sometimes it’s maybe not the best way.

"I am always challenging these players in everything I do. Because I feel we are, not just the players, but everybody at Manchester United is too comfortable. So I think sometimes we need a shock and you can see today we were a different team.

"It was not about the system, it was about the way we faced the competition."

United had a rare six-day gap between matches and the benefit of that was evident as they became only the fifth team in 28 games this season to prevent Liverpool from winning.

"I don’t want to use that but of course when you train, you understand better the way we play," Amorim conceded. "The positioning, the characteristics of the team, that is really important but I don't want to use that today.

"Today is all about the focus when you are playing, the focus on set pieces, the focus on passing the ball not in the sloppy way but in the way that we cannot lose one ball because in the other part of the pitch it’s (Mohamed) Salah, it’s (Luis) Diaz.

"So you don’t lose the ball, if you lose the ball in some parts we are going to suffer. If you have that mentality every day you are a different team and that is really clear."

United captain Bruno Fernandes expressed his frustration at how inconsistent United's performance level has been under Amorim after the draw. Fernandes admitted he was "pretty upset. If we show this level at Liverpool, first in the league, why can't we do this everywhere?"

Amorim echoed his skipper's analysis. "I think it’s a very good sign, it’s really clear. We lost three games in a row at home, some of the games we suffer two goals without doing nothing.

"I am upset today, really upset. I am pleased for the performance but everyone today is going to say that the team did a good job. Today I am allowed to be the only guy upset with the team but today we were a team.

"We had some good games during this last month but then we drop again. It’s something that we need to be really consistent. We had this talk after against City it was the same.

"We can talk but we need to show and do it and the best thing is tomorrow we have training and we have to maintain the same level of mentality."