The Toon Army beat The Red Devils 2-0 on Monday (30.12.24) night, leaving the club ranked 14th after four losses in their last five games.

Boss Ruben Amorim told Sky Sports about the threat of relegation: "That is really clear, and we have to fight.

"It’s a really difficult moment, one of the more difficult moments in the history of Manchester United, and we have to address it with honesty and to be clear with that.

"We have to fight, we’ll see."

The 39-year-old Portuguese manager – who replaced Erik Ten Hag in November – admitted it is "really hard" to change their ways to improve performance due to a lack of time to "train the basics", and the Old Trafford-based club needs to "focus on surviving".

He added: "When you have these kind of moments, especially in the big clubs, it's really hard to turn things around, especially when you don't have a lot of time to train the basics, to cope with the difficult moments.

"So we have to acknowledge our position, the way you see the league, everybody can beat everybody.

"So we have to engage and focus on surviving."

Ruben has stuck to a three-four-three system, as opposed to Erik's method of having four players at the back.

He believes this is the right approach and "really [sticks] on that".

Ruben said: "In every game, I change something tactical.

"You focus on the three defenders, you can focus on that.

"I change for every game, and you can see it.

"If I did not believe, I would change, because I am not stubborn.

"I believe in something, and I really stick on that."