Downing: We showed too much respect

The Reds trailed 2-0 thanks to goals from Robin van Persie and Nemanja Vidic before a second-half resurgence left Alex Ferguson's side clinging on to a 2-1 lead.

"In the end we're disappointed that we didn't take anything out of the game. We should have got a draw," Downing told the Liverpool Echo.

"We probably let them control it in the first half. We sat back too much and just let them have the ball too much.

"We showed United too much respect. The manager stressed at half-time that we needed to push on and put them under pressure more when they had the ball.

"He said if we could get at them they would tire and we would get chances. We did that and you saw that in the second half we played further up the pitch.

"I thought in the second half our performance was really good. Certainly for the last 20 minutes we had them pegged right back.

"You could sense that their fans were getting edgy and Alex Ferguson was shouting a lot of instructions. We had them rattled a bit and created plenty of chances."

Liverpool's improved display after the interval followed the introduction of Daniel Sturridge, who now has two goals 100 minutes of football for his new club.

"Sturridge coming on maybe pushed us a bit further forward," added Downing,.

"We got support for Luis (Suarez) up there, who was probably getting frustrated before that.

"That's what Sturridge gives you. He can get in behind people, and he's got pace and power. You saw that with the way he took his goal.

"We're disappointed to lose but it's encouraging that we created so many chances. Not many teams will come here and play like we did in the second half."

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