Manchester United's Nemanja Matic: 'We have to play better against Liverpool'

Nemanja Matic has claimed that he and his Manchester United teammates need to step it up a gear when they take on Liverpool on Saturday.

Jose Mourinho's side were in danger of suffering a shock defeat to Crystal Palace on Monday night when they went 2-0 down in the first half.

Goals from Chris Smalling, Romelu Lukaku and a screamer from Matic, though, secured a dramatic 3-2 victory for United at Selhurst Park.

"We have to do more if we want to win, as Liverpool is a team with great quality," Matic told the club's official website. "We have to play better, but with the same character.

"We'll show the same character as we did [against Palace], but we have to be honest - we have to play better, especially when you see our first half performance.

"It is obviously great to win game by game and when you have a match against Liverpool coming up, a big derby, it's important to go into that with a win."

United sit just two points above Liverpool in second place in the Premier League table.