Ruben Amorim praised Manchester United for their spirited 2-2 draw against Liverpool before adding that he is trying to "shock" with his comments about the team because everyone is "too comfortable."

Amad Diallo's 80th-minute equaliser at Anfield, after goals from Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah had given Liverpool a 2-1 lead, earned Amorim's team a point against the Premier League leaders and ended a three-game losing streak. Lisandro Martínez scored the opening goal for United.

United could have won it when Harry Maguire was given a clear chance to score seven minutes into stoppage time, but the England center half put his shot over the crossbar.

After going into the game by saying that his players were "afraid" to have the ball, Amorim said his shock therapy approach is designed to shake the club out of its malaise.

"I'm trying that [motivation] every day," Amorim told reporters. "I'm trying to push this team every day, sometimes it's maybe not the best way, I am always challenging these players in everything I do because I feel we are, not just the players, but everybody at Manchester United is too comfortable.

"So I think sometimes we need a shock, and you can see today we were a different team. It was not about the system, it was about the way we faced the competition. I think it's a very good sign. It's really clear, we lost three games in a row at home, some of the games we suffer two goals without doing nothing.

"I am upset today, really upset. I am pleased for the performance but everyone today is going to say to that team that they did a good job. Today I am allowed to be the only guy upset with the team, but today we were a team."

United had lost five of their past six league games going into the Liverpool clash and now face an FA Cup third-round tie at Arsenal on Jan. 12 before returning to Premier League action with a home game against bottom club Southampton on Jan. 16.

But after being undone by inconsistency during Amorim's brief time at the club, the former Sporting CP coach is now aiming to avoid another slump after a big result.

"Of course, not just to the end of the season, is so long, but we had some good games during this last month but then we drop again," Amorim said. "It's something that we need to be really consistent. We had this talk after against [Manchester] City and it was the same. We can talk, but we need to show and do it, and the best thing is tomorrow we have training and we have to maintain the same level of mentality."

Amorim also defended Joshua Zirkzee after the forward passed to Maguire deep in stoppage time rather than shooting himself.

Maguire failed to connect properly with Zirkzee's pass and sent his shot over the bar with the final chance of the game.

"For me I think it was the perfect decision," Amorim said. "He can shoot, but he put the ball in the centre, one guy is running back, the ball was really slow for Harry to score but sometimes you can't. Josh made a good decision, in my opinion."