Manchester United’s “crazy” dressing room inquest helped them tame free-scoring Liverpool.
That is the view of Red Devils full-back Luke Shaw, who minimised the impact of the Premier League’s top scorer Mohamed Salah in a goalless draw with their arch rivals on Sunday.
Salah, who has netted 17 of Liverpool’s 59 league goals this season, was substituted in the 79th minute after failing to get the better of Shaw.
But the England defender revealed interim boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was unhappy with United’s first-half display.
Shaw said: “We had a good chat at half-time. Everyone was going crazy. We were all very disappointed and didn’t play well at all.
“We gave too many balls away too cheaply and luckily that didn’t cost us. We said ‘relax and we just need to play our game’ and I think second-half was better with a change of formation.
“Overall I think we created the best chances and I feel we should have won even if we weren’t at our best.”
United lost Ander Herrera, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard to hamstring injuries in the first-half.
The trio are all doubts for Wednesday’s trip to Crystal Palace, while Marcus Rashford is carrying an ankle knock.
The game comes too soon for Nemanja Matic, who missed the Liverpool stalemate with a muscle injury.
Shaw added: “It’s a very strange feeling. I don’t know if it has ever happened before in a game.
“But, look, we’re professional footballers so we need to be able to deal with that and adapt to whatever is thrown at us on the pitch.
“Of course it’s not easy, especially the players we lost. It’s quite hard to take. We had two injuries during the week as well that sort of changed the team.
“But, no, we kept focused, we did our job, everyone played brilliantly I thought, especially defensively as a team.
“To keep Liverpool so quiet overall is a very good job by us but, like I say, we were unlucky not to score.”
Shaw recovered from a horrific broken leg three years ago and had to force his way back into ex-boss Jose Mourinho’s plans after being publicly criticised by him.
And the former Southampton man has earned himself a new Old Trafford deal with a return to form this season.
He said: “I’m still quite young. There’s always room to improve and that’s what I want to do, keep improving and see what happens.
“I think I’ve still got another level to come. I don’t think I am really at my best and I know what I can do when I’m at my best.
“Of course I am happy with how it went today but there’s still more to come from me especially and that’s me being honest.
“I feel I can do more but the only thing I need to focus on is myself, keeping myself in the right conditions and keep pushing myself every day and trying to become what I want to be.”