No more player power, standing up to Man United's big names and working them like dogs: Why a draw at Liverpool was Ruben Amorim's first real victory, writes OLIVER HOLT

One draw, whoever it is earned against, does not mean salvation. One point, whoever the opposition, does not mean deliverance. Not even from the relegation struggle that Manchester United have allowed themselves to be dragged into. Not yet.

But the share of the spoils that Bruno Fernandes, Harry Maguire, Diogo Dalot and their teammates carved out amid the banks of snow piled on the touchlines at Anfield on Sunday still felt as if it could be a significant prize in a recent history of struggle and mediocrity.

Most of all, that was because that solitary point against Liverpool, a point that moved them from 14th to 13th in the Premier League table, actually felt like a hugely important victory for Ruben Amorim as United’s new head coach tries to make sense of the chaos he has inherited and assert his authority over a fallen giant.

Some were starting to question already whether he was up to the job at Old Trafford. People said he was too honest. People said his 3-4-2-1 system was too rigid. Some wondered whether he might already be regretting moving from Sporting Lisbon. Jamie Carragher, always an erudite observer, drew comparisons with Graham Potter at Chelsea. Some said he had been found out.

Sunday was a draw but it was also Amorim’s first victory. Sure, United beat Manchester City last month but they played poorly in that smash-and-grab raid and the City team they beat was already reeling amid the realisation of their own sudden ordinariness. What United did at Anfield was different.

I haven’t seen a United performance like that for a long time. I had grown used to watching them play Manchester City and Liverpool and, more recently, Arsenal and being astonished by the complacency of United players who had absolutely no right to be complacent.

It was the first sign Amorim may have made the breakthrough United fans have craved

It was Amad Diallo’s late strike that salvaged a point for the Red Devils at Anfield 

Every single time they played each other, the City teams of Pep Guardiola and the Liverpool sides of Jurgen Klopp outworked United. They outfought them and they outran them. On the most basic level, United players have given the distinct impression that hard graft was beneath them.

For way, way too long now, players have treated signing for Manchester United as if they have just been handed a lifetime pass for Easy Street. Sign for United and you get to lie on coffee sacks in the loft all day, ‘goofing off’ like Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront.

For too many of them, signing for United has been the end of a journey, an achievement in itself, not the beginning of something.

It seemed to be a particular failing of United’s appallingly naive and starstruck recruitment policy that they bought players drunk on their own economic power and apparently impervious to the pleadings of a succession of helpless managers. Entitlement has become the Manchester United disease.

United’s performance on Sunday felt like the first breath of change. It was the first finite sign of the beginning of the end of the toxic culture that has hobbled the club in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson years where too many regarded success as an automatic right.

In that context, the level of United’s commitment on Sunday was startling. On Sunday, they made Liverpool look like the team that was taking something for granted. Manuel Ugarte, Fernandes, Dalot and Kobbie Mainoo worked like dogs.

They were quicker than their Liverpool counterparts, they were hungrier, they were braver, they were more fierce, they were more determined. That kind of attitude has not been evident at United for a long time. They fought so hard no one would have begrudged them the win they deserved.

It was instructive that Amorim’s first words in his press conference after the Liverpool game took direct aim at that toxic culture he discovered when he arrived.

On Sunday, they made Liverpool look like the team that was taking something for granted

‘The most important thing to address today is the mentality and that is the key for everything,’ he said. ‘So today we were a different team, not because of the system, not because of the technical aspect of the game. We faced the competition in the way we are supposed to face every day, training and match.

‘I am trying to push this team every day. I am always challenging the players in everything that we do because I feel that we are – not just the players but everybody at Manchester United, too comfortable.’

Too comfortable? Absolutely right. They ought to write that as the epitaph for the United careers of the band of players who have passed through Old Trafford in the last decade, picking up their bloated wages, expecting trophies to alight upon them.

It takes a strong character to challenge that status quo when it gets embedded and Amorim is giving it his best shot. I admire what he’s doing at Old Trafford and the way he’s doing it and the way he is challenging conventional wisdom about how a modern coach must tip-toe around modern players.

Amorim is going against conventional wisdom by refusing to protect his players. He wants to shock them. He wants to make them stand up. He wants to make them start taking responsibility at last.

So he has taken them on. He has chosen honesty. He has talked about them being ‘afraid’. He has made them, and us, aware there will be consequences if they do not give their all in training. He showed he was not afraid to take on Marcus Rashford, the most powerful player of all.

Enough with swaddling them all like infant children. Enough with cocooning them in the comfort of their own wealth and entitlement. Enough with bowing to player power. It takes courage to do what Amorim is doing and Sunday was the first sign he may have made the breakthrough all United fans have craved.

I admire what Amorim is doing at United and the way he is challenging conventional wisdom

Littler’s got charisma in spades

Charisma is a strange thing in sport.

At Alexandra Palace on Friday night, Luke Littler’s charisma filled the entire venue as he destroyed Michael van Gerwen in the World Darts Championship final. It infused the arena with a rare kind of excitement.

His charisma comes not with what he says but with what he does, because to be in the presence of clear and obvious greatness, whatever the sport, is a thrill that never dulls.

Luke Littler’s charisma filled the entire venue as he won the World Darts Championship final

Opinions have been divided after William Saliba (left) was deemed to have fouled Joao Pedro

Contentious decisions divide once again

There were a lot of contentious refereeing decisions over the weekend. Same as every weekend. On Sky Sports, the analysts were agreed that William Saliba’s head clash with Joao Pedro was an obvious penalty. That was my view, too.

On the BBC, the analysts said the decision was plainly wrong. Decisions divide us because, sometimes, they are a matter of interpretation but what remains clear is that the blaming of officials is the last refuge of the under-pressure manager who is out of excuses.

They all resort to it in the end. It is usually a sign that the apocalypse is upon them.