Arne Slot has suggested Liverpool's struggles in Sunday's 2-2 draw with Manchester United were predominantly due to the Red Devils' tactics.

The Reds looked off the pace for long periods, with United much-improved from their recent three-game losing streak, in which they had failed to score a goal.

"We started really well. We had three open chances in the game and then there was a period of time which was more difficult for us," Slot told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"It is difficult if you play against quality players that are playing in a low block, with only [Rasmus] Hojlund and [Amad] Diallo as the attackers.

"It's not always easy to find the gaps and that's what happened. Then being 1-0 down makes it even more difficult, but I was very happy with the mentality we showed afterwards going 2-1 up."

As well as analysing his own side's performance, Slot was keen to give credit to the visitors.

Lisandro Martinez had initially put United 1-0 up in the second half and, while they briefly went 2-1 down, Diallo produced the moment of the match to make it 2-2 late on.

"They have quality with the ball and without the ball. They are difficult to play through. It was so open when they started to play. You can see more how good they are if they are trying to play," Slot told Match of the Day.

"For the first 75 minutes, [Andre] Onana played the ball long and every free-kick they got, they just hit it forward. In the last 15 minutes, you could see if they play over the ground, how good they are.

"People forget all the chances we had. They had the open chance from [Harry] Maguire. We had many more chances than them but, in the end, we could have definitely lost it with the Maguire chance."

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk echoed his manager's comments in playing down the home side's poor performance.

"It could have been a lot worse, if we are absolutely honest with ourselves. They had a big chance in the end and that could have been a lot worse than where we are now," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"I'm definitely disappointed with dropping points at home, but it is what is and we have to move on and we will.

"We found the 2-1 and then it is about trying to manage the game and keeping the ball for longer than three and four passes.

"We lost the ball too easily at times and then we were more open than we should have been. We are not perfect, we are still learning and we have to learn from this as well."

Van Dijk also rejected the notion that the Liverpool players had underestimated United, who were 14th in the table before the game.

"That's all the media - media talk. It's nothing to do with us," he said. "We prepared for a very tough game like we have seen today.

"We didn't think any of that. We look at the next game, we don't look at the league table."