The tactical tweaks Ruben Amorim used to revive Manchester United at Anfield

Manchester United’s dramatically improved performance against Liverpool came after subtle shifts in the manager’s beloved three-at-the-back system

For large parts of his Manchester United career, Bruno Fernandes has appeared the answer. Now he posed the question. “If we show this today at Anfield against Liverpool, that is first in the league and has been probably the outstanding team in the Premier League this season, why can’t we do this every week?”

To draw 2-2 at Anfield represented a shift in mood and immediate improvement, but also a cause for frustration. Ruben Amorim raised the issue of their three home defeats: to Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and Newcastle, too, not Liverpool. “Some of the games we suffer two goals without doing nothing,” he said. But then the side he had warned were at risk of relegation instead held the champions-elect. If inconsistency appeared a step forward for United, when the alternative was being consistently bad, it isn’t Amorim’s objective.

“Training and match, it doesn’t match the place, the opponent, we need to face every day like that,” he said. There are times when the captain channels his manager’s thinking and Fernandes’s reaction to holding Liverpool was: “We can’t be satisfied. I’m pretty upset.” And not by Harry Maguire’s 97th-minute miss, either, but by the malaise that left United marooned in 14th.

Amorim saw a much-improved Manchester United performance (Peter Byrne/PA)

Perhaps United are at their best when there is an expectation they could be hammered and humiliated. They are sometimes excellent as underdogs, floundering in the type of games they regularly won. “They have shown before that if things are really difficult for them, they can show up,” noted Arne Slot, citing the FA Cup final. Like many a supposed success for United in recent years, that arguably backfired: it persuaded them to keep Erik ten Hag.

Now Amorim has been given a rescue job. He was most pleased at Anfield by the mentality. Yet that seemed a strength of United’s for parts of Ten Hag’s first season, the time when it seemed he had altered what he called the “no-good culture” he inherited. Ralf Rangnick, another to diagnose some of the issues at Old Trafford, has said United needed “open-heart surgery”. The mentality monsters, to borrow Jurgen Klopp’s phrase, in recent years have rarely been United. Maybe they have been mentality midgets, cowering when they needed to tower. “I get mad more than after other games,” said Amorim. If United can drive anyone mad, Amorim seems to be giving them an electric shock.

“Everybody at Manchester United is too comfortable so I think sometimes we need a shock,” he said. If Marcus Rashford may have been surprised by the smiling Amorim’s hardline stance at times, the head coach himself has been taken aback. There have been too many times when United were shocking. The size of the club and the global scrutiny means condemnation follows.

“Obviously we were criticised, and fairly, because the position in the table says it all, we lost too many points, even today, we can’t be happy with the draw, because we need points more than they need,” said Fernandes. He has been criticised himself: the rashness he showed to collect a red card at Wolves occurred at 0-0 and was followed by defeat, plus another when he was suspended and Casemiro and Christian Eriksen formed a statuesque midfield.

Unsurprisingly, neither was required at Anfield, where Manuel Ugarte offered rather more energy. United had legs in midfield; they benefited from Amorim’s brainpower, too, though he focused on the heart they displayed.

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“Today we were a different team not because of the system, not because of a technical aspect or the tactical aspect,” he added. And yet a manager who has risked death by dogma, being a slave to his 3-4-3 formation, showed he could tweak by the game. His wing-backs were lopsided, Diogo Dalot played much higher up on the left to join Fernandes in tormenting Trent Alexander-Arnold. Fernandes played a hybrid role, partly assisting Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo in midfield but with duties in the inside-left channel. It was his pass that released Lisandro Martinez for the opening goal. Meanwhile, Amad Diallo, ostensibly the other No 10, operated as more of a winger on the right but popped up in the penalty area for the equaliser.

The scoreline was different, as United had not even found the net at Anfield since Jose Mourinho was their manager, but the result was familiar. Even in compiling a dreadful recent record against Liverpool, they have had a sprinkling of draws at Anfield. Mourinho got one; so did Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ten Hag.

Amad Diallo celebrates after scoring United’s equaliser (Getty)

As a club, they are no strangers to false dawns. The last 11 years have been littered with them, along with too many home defeats to clubs of the ilk of Forest, Bournemouth and Newcastle. Amorim is presenting himself as United’s amiable hard man, a demanding figure who forever wants more. When United won the Manchester derby, they promptly lost their next four games. Now they have held Liverpool. It invites a test: what comes next? Is it a turning point, or merely the latest example that United can occasionally show an elite mentality but then an awful one? “Today I am allowed to be the only guy upset with the team but today we were a team,” said Amorim. But can they remain a team?