Lessons learnt by United or just one more false dawn?

For large parts of his Manchester United career, Bruno Fernandes has appeared the answer. Now he posed the question.

- RICHARD JOLLY

"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 97thminute miss, either, but by the malaise that left United marooned in 14th.

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.