Patrice Evra has praised the new-found resilience Manchester United showed against Liverpool.
Evra's former club had endured a horror start to the new season, losing both opening Premier League games and shipping a total of six goals against Brighton and Brentford. But they recovered in style at Old Trafford last Monday, seeing off their arch-rivals 2-1.
Evra was impressed with the new-look defence consisting of new arrivals Lisandro Martinez and Tyrell Malacia. The former partnered Raphael Varane at centre-back for the first time while Malacia replaced Luke Shaw at left-back for his first competitive start in a United shirt.
"What impressed me most was the resilience in defence," Evra said in association with Betfair. "I spoke about Martinez - height isn't a problem and he showed that with his aggression. Malacia played his first game against Liverpool, he was great with his aggressiveness and willingness to play for the team, I saw personality. The defence was solid.
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"I feel gutted for (David) De Gea, he didn't get a clean sheet. You could see his face and how disappointed he was when they conceded."
Evra says the key is to now continue the feelgood factor when Erik ten Hag takes his team to Southampton on Saturday lunchtime.
He added: "This is a massive boost, but the players can't forget they play for Manchester United, they can have a great game, but as soon as they have a bad game people will say that they are the worst players. Keep your feet on the ground, keep working hard, this is just the beginning. They've just won a survival game, now they need to have the consistency and they need to win against Southampton. If they draw, people won't understand it because they just beat Liverpool."
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