Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag admits he is very proud of his team following their hard-earned point in goalless draw away to Liverpool

Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool were dominant in goalless draw with Man United
Klopp felt Liverpool had more control than in last season’s 7-0 success
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Erik ten Hag said he is proud of his team and that they ‘should do this more often’ after heavily-scrutinised Manchester United earned a decent away point in a game that many had tipped Liverpool to ease to victory.

Liverpool had 34 shots but could not break down United, with many players including goalkeeper Andre Onana putting in their strongest defensive display of the season. And manager Ten Hag left thinking his side had the better chances to win the game.

‘I said after the game in the dressing room that I’m very proud of this team,’ said the Dutchman. ‘We should do this more often. I said this. For instance, Newcastle was also a tough game, we made one mistake, we switched off and conceded the goal.

‘But when you stay in the game, when you are disciplined in your game-plan, finally it opens up and you can take your chances or get two, three, four passes in after the ball regains, get the switches in and then you can really be more dominant in the game.’

Asked if last season’s 7-0 drubbing was used as motivation, Ten Hag added: ‘We mentioned it but I said to them last year we played them three times, we lost one time but we beat them two times. We are capable of beating Liverpool and we proved that today.

Man United boss Erik ten Hag expressed his pride after his side’s draw with Liverpool

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‘If we bring this every game on the pitch. First of all, we are a hard team to beat but from that point, we can go and win games and also big games. In the end, you have to conclude, we had the best chances… for Rasmus Hojlund and Alejandro Garnacho.’

Jurgen Klopp said there were lots of positives to take despite Liverpool being unable to score. ‘Besides the result, a lot of positives about this game, the decisive stuff was not there today,’ he said. ‘The goal if we had scored it would have changed everything.

‘They fought hard for it, credit to them. We just had to keep going. Tried pretty much everything, changed the system, brought fresh players on and everything could have worked out with better decisions. The way United defended was with a lot of passion.’

Klopp added that midfielder Ryan Gravenberch had suffered a hamstring injury and is now a doubt for the festive fixtures, joining a long list of players on the treatment table including Diogo Jota, Andy Robertson, Alexis Mac Allister, Thiago Alcantara, Joel Matip and Stefan Bajcetic.

Klopp said: ‘We will see, it got worse during the game and we hoped it would go by and there was this really intense sprint with the ball which ended by the 18-yard line. I hope it is not that serious but in the next 10 days (there are) three more games so I don’t know.’

Asked on the title race, Klopp added: ‘I couldn’t really be interested. I am happy we are in the area we are in but I don’t know why we open that discussion. It is December. My boys looked to me that they are really ready to give it a proper try and we will see.’

Jurgen Klopp says there were positives to take despite Liverpool being held to a draw

Liverpool had many opportunities but found it very difficult to break United down

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