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Diogo Dalot called it a shift in attitude. Ruben Amorim said it was all about the mentality. Lisandro Martinez pointed to his temple to signify the improvement in Manchester United, and Bruno Fernandes simply said it had upset him.
United’s head coach and players were all singing from the same hymn sheet after they turned in their best performance under Amorim to draw 2-2 with Liverpool at Anfield. A week of training at Carrington helped bring about improvements on the pitch, but the most significant change was in mindset.
The challenge now is for United to produce this every week, and the question to be asked internally is why this hasn’t been repeated more often this season. A team that had lost five of their last six Premier League games and had spent the week talking of a relegation battle suddenly appeared the equal of the runaway league leaders.
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Amorim’s press conference underneath Anfield’s leaky Main Stand was fascinating to listen to. He played down the impact of those training sessions at Carrington and rejected the idea that the improvement was due to a greater understanding of his system. Instead, it was all about how they had approached the game. The 39-year-old sounded mildly annoyed that he had seen such a shift in approach.
“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.”
Dalot struck a similar theme when he spoke in the mixed zone after the game. The 25-year-old talked about the impact the training sessions had on the performance and understanding of the system, but three times he used the word “attitude” when discussing the display.
“I think we started the game really into the attitude that we want to show from now onwards,” he said. “To get out of it the minimum that we need to show is the attitude that we showed today, the fighting spirit, the winning duels, showing that it’s going to be a tough night or a tough afternoon for a club like Liverpool.”
Lisandro Martinez was interviewed by Match of the Day after his goalscoring performance. When asked what was different about United, he pointed to his head and said, “the mind”, later adding: “We had changed our mindset.”
As captain, Fernandes’ words carry significant weight, to the point that Amorim was asked about them in his post-match press conference.
“I’m pretty upset because if we showed this today against Liverpool, who are first in the league, at Anfield, so they are probably the outstanding team in the league this season, why can’t we do this every week?” he asked.
“It starts with me first because I think I finally did a proper performance overall and I think we need to be aware – and we said it before the game – we need much more from ourselves to get something from this season. We need to put some pride out because this isn’t enough for us.”
Fernandes later said he would “probably be more worried about Southampton after this performance, thinking it’s already good enough because it’s not, and it will be a really tough one again.”
In many ways, that Thursday night at Old Trafford against the Saints now stands as a litmus test. It will be a much more low-key affair than Sunday at Anfield.
The Saints have only six points to their name and already appear doomed to relegation. United must win to properly start easing those fears of being dragged into a relegation battle.
This performance against Liverpool has now set the standard under Amorim, not just in terms of quality and tactical understanding but also in terms of mentality, attitude, and mindset. If the latter isn’t repeated against the Saints, questions will rightly be asked.