What Manchester United did after going 2-1 down to Liverpool showed their mentality change

We have become accustomed to seeing slumped shoulders, heads bowed and no communication when Manchester United concede. At Anfield, it was different.

After Mohamed Salah made it 2-1, Bruno Fernandes collectively addressed his teammates and preached calm. He then held a constructive conflab with Diogo Dalot, aware of how gettable Trent Alexander-Arnold was. All 11 United players stuck their chests out. Harry Maguire vented at the referee again.

Ruben Amorim is often right and said afterwards United's performance boiled down to mentality. Their body language immediately after Salah converted his penalty was becoming of a United side.

That defeatist air about them had gone when defeat seemed likely. Ten minutes later, United equalised. Then they strove to get a winner.

There were hands on hips and hands on heads at full-time. For United to be disappointed not to have won at Anfield is the desired mentality.

Matches have been postponed with tamer conditions outside. The snow, slush and ice made for a treacherous passage through Stanley Park. Liverpool had a match postponed on the blue side of the park last month and did not want another.

Perhaps they were convinced it was a question of how many they would win by. With roads gritted, United showed grit. It was comfortably their finest performance on Amorim's watch and their best at Anfield since March 2015.

Fernandes, ill-disciplined at Molineux on Boxing Day, was influential. Amorim's pre-match rhetoric about United "starving for leaders" elicited a reaction from his captain, Maguire and Lisandro Martinez, the three players who have worn the armband under the Portuguese.

Maguire has been outstanding at the Etihad and Anfield, grounds where United shipped eight goals during