Ander Herrera hailed the fighting spirit of his Manchester United teammates in their 0-0 Premier League draw with Liverpool, although he was disappointed not to win the game.
Jose Mourinho's side, which had won its last four league meetings with its fierce rival, frustrated the home side for long spells in a tense and largely uneventful game at Anfield.
United was restricted to 35 percent possession and mustered only one shot on target, though Zlatan Ibrahimovic missed his team's best chance of the match when he headed Paul Pogba's cross back across the six-yard line and away from Loris Karius's goal.
Herrera believes United can take plenty of encouragement from its display but insisted that his team's intention was not to settle for a draw.
"We were better in first half, they were better in the second half," he told Sky Sports . "David de Gea made two good saves in the second half but Zlatan missed a fantastic chance. No one wanted to lose but we can take a lot from this game. Now we have to win matches — we want to be champions and we have to win matches.
"We tried to win every duel, every ball. We knew it would be a big fight, they're in a very good moment, they press a lot and want to win every ball and we were prepared for that. We always want to win but we showed we're a big team and we're going to fight for everything. I'm very proud of every teammate."
Ashley Young, who was handed a rare start on the United right as Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata dropped to the bench, felt his side should be proud of a defensive display that limited Liverpool to just three efforts on target in the 90 minutes.
"There were chances for both teams but we knew what our job was," he said. "We defended to a man. We had chances to win but it's a tough place to come, [though] we'd have liked the win.
"You don't want to lose at a place like this. We're disappointed we didn't get the three points but fought to the end and we've got great team spirit. We did a fantastic job, I think we can be very proud of our team, every player gave everything and this is how we have to play big matches."
