The Red Devils looked like they were heading for a walloping in the first half at Old Trafford as they failed to muster a shot on goal (for the first time since October 2015), while Luis Diaz netted with one of Liverpool’s 15 efforts.
But United hit back shortly after the restart thanks to a stunning long-range goal from Bruno Fernandes and then took the lead massively against the run of play through a delightful finish from Kobbie Mainoo.
Still Liverpool racked up chances, hitting United on the break at will, and grabbed a point late on when Harvey Elliott was brought down inside the box and Mohamed Salah converted the resulting spot-kick.
United conceded 28 shots in the match despite escaping with a draw and have now given up 253 shots since the turn of the year.
Liverpool had plenty of opportunities on the break, with Ten Hag setting up his side to encourage an end-to-end game, and the United boss has defended the approach, insisting that few of the transitions his side gave up on Sunday were dangerous.
Asked if he will keep persisting with a transition game after another leaky display, Ten Hag hit back: ‘Its clear when you play Chelsea, when you play Liverpool, it will be a transition game.
‘Because they are top at it, both teams, and both teams also want to play and they leave space for counters and I thought there were absolutely moments where we could have done better reactions in the transitions, the defence transitions.
‘But in general we did very good. We conceded only goals from two set plays.
‘In our transition we could have done even better. For instance, Garnacho with Bruno, I don’t know if the pass had to come earlier or the timing from the run was too quick.
‘And then already after a couple of minutes we should have taken the lead.’
On the draw, he added: ‘Very mixed emotions. On one side, I am disappointed that we have dropped seven points in one week, after being in winning positions, but we have to blame ourselves for making stupid mistakes.
‘On the other side, I am very proud. You see how we are improving and the potential of this squad is amazing. I am proud.
‘In decisive areas, we were losing battles, especially with young players, we were not confident to win them [duels]. We encouraged [them] in the second half to do better and they stepped up.’
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