Fowler: Reds are still in a good position

An unbeaten run of 13 Barclays Premier League games was halted in the Anfield sunshine as Louis van Gaal's side prospered, inspired by Juan Mata, who scored both goals in a 2-1 victory over 10-man Liverpool.

The Reds had closed the gap on United to just two points in the table prior to Sunday; however, there now exists a five-point margin between the teams in the race for a Champions League finish.

After the loss, Brendan Rodgers urged his players to heed the example they set at the end of last year, when they used the disappointment of defeat against United at Old Trafford to instigate a sparkling run of form.

Fowler believes repeating the feat is possible - and he's backing Liverpool to recover from the Anfield reversal when domestic fixtures resume after the international break at Arsenal on April 4.

He told the Liverpool Echo: "We're still in a good position, we've got good players and the potential to go on a good run and claw the points back and I really believe we will do. It's obviously a little bit tougher now.

"When you do get beat you want to play as quickly as possible to try to right the wrongs, so the international break's not ideal.

"But there are a lot of players who have gone away on international duty, so one positive is they won't be dwelling or thinking on the result too much.

"Liverpool have been on this unbelievable run and we were still two points behind so that tells me Manchester United have not been doing as badly as people were thinking. If you analyse the game the best side won, let's be honest about it."

Daniel Sturridge pulled a goal back for Liverpool following Steven Gerrard's dismissal on Sunday, racing onto Philippe Coutinho's threaded pass to fire beneath the body of opposition goalkeeper David de Gea.

It was Sturridge's fourth goal since returning from a five-month injury lay-off on January 31 - and Fowler insists the forward needs a little more time and support in order to hit peak form.

"What happens is when you first come back into the side, you get by on adrenalin," explained the man who hit 183 goals in 369 Liverpool appearances. "And then all of a sudden it just hits you.

"You are playing catch-up. [Daniel] missed a lot of games and he looked sharp and looked good when he came back. But then there's that little bit of a momentum loss. He's not playing as well as he would like but you know what - he's still scoring goals.

"His movement and sharpness is probably not what it was when he first came back but he'll get it right. Because I'm a forward I think it's not just about him. We shouldn't be putting pressure on Daniel to score goals; we need other players to weigh in as well.

"We need the Raheems to score, we need the Coutinhos to score - he's obviously doing very well at the minute - and we need other players as well.

"You want all your team to defend but you want all your team to weigh in with some goals as well, I think that's probably what we want more than anything."