Bruno Fernandes has urged his Manchester United teammates to climb off the canvas and start throwing a few punches back, telling them they must show they "have the balls" to play for the club.

United are enduring a dismal season and head to Fulham this weekend in the bottom half of the table. They have just seven wins from 22 Premier League fixtures and 10 defeats.

Head coach Ruben Amorim has opted for shock therapy of late, telling the media that his side are in a relegation battle and then claiming after last weekend's 3-1 defeat to Brighton that they are "maybe the worst team in Manchester United's history".

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Amorim has been critical of the state of the club he has walked into, claiming everyone is too comfortable in the current environment and delivering some brutal home truths to try and engineer a reaction.

Six of Amorim's 11 league games have ended in defeat, but captain Fernandes said the players needed to show they had the character to handle the pressure that comes with playing for Manchester United.

"The reality is that to play for this club you have to have that pressure, you have to have the balls to play for this club - because that is what it is," he said.

"You have to feel that in every moment in every game it is a new chance to bring the club back to the position we deserve.

"And unfortunately for us this season there have been too many ups and downs and every time we look like getting there, we get punched again and we go down.

"What we have to do is every time we take a punch and go down, we have to get up and try to punch back."

Amorim's comment about this being the worst team in United's 147-year history made headlines around the world last weekend. It was considered a risky tactic that could alienate his squad at a time when he is trying to instil a new playing style, but Fernandes is aware that it has a ring of truth to it.

"When he says ‘the worst team in Manchester’ he speaks about the position we are in and when you look at where we are in the league we are in the worst position we’ve ever been. I think there is maybe only one time when United was worse than that and I’m not fully certain about that," he said.

"So you have to take it, that’s the reality for us unfortunately. We are in a position for a long, long time where the club doesn’t belong there. But we have to accept that and understand that we need to push ourselves to much bigger things and much higher positions."

Amorim is usually calm and composed post-match, preferring to say nothing in the dressing room and leave his debrief until the following day, but he couldn't hold his emotions following the defeat to Brighton.

Fernandes said Amorim's comment fired him up, but also believes it is their hot-headed Portuguese background that led to the stunning outburst, revealing that the usually mild-mannered Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could also lose his cool in the Old Trafford furnace.

"I don’t want to hear my manager saying certain things about the team because I know he doesn’t feel that. I am pretty sure it’s in a moment of rage – I am Portuguese, I know that pretty quickly the blood comes up, so it’s just in that moment," he said.

"I was here with Ole, one of the calmest people I ever met, and he had this sometimes. As a manager you depend on the results and sometimes you need to have these kind of words to your players.

"It wasn’t anything out of context or something we didn’t deserve in the moment. He made himself part of that and when the manager makes himself part of what he’s saying, no-one can get angry or disappointed by it."

Fernandes helped to lift the mood on Thursday night, slamming an injury-time winner to beat Rangers in the Europa League at Old Trafford. It was a goal reminiscent of so many late acts of drama from United in years gone by, a history the current captain is familiar with.

"I think since I have been at this club that has always been a part of things. Since I have been here we always talk about Sir Alex’s time, you know, when he looks at his watch and United will grab a goal for sure," he said.

"I don’t know if the manager has a watch to look at but obviously we need to have that belief.

"We know we are not in the position this club was many, many years ago and have a long, long way to go as a team, but we are on our path. We know it won’t be as easy as they made it look because obviously they had great players in the past at this club and a great manager who led the club to many trophies.

"But we have to make our own way. As tough as it is, and as difficult as it can be, we are going to fight for this club to try and make it back."