Ruben Amorim admitted Manchester United's late victory against Southampton helped his conversation with co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

Ratcliffe attended a match at Old Trafford for the first time since Amorim took over on November 11 and United left it late to defeat bottom club Southampton.

United went 1-0 down in the 43rd minute to the Premier League's basement side before Amad scored a 12-minute hat-trick late on to secure United's first win in 90 minutes for over a month.

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Ratcliffe was present for United's defeat of Manchester City on December 15 but had been absent during their six-game stretch without an outright win.

"Yes, I had five minutes with him to talk about different things," Amorim said. "About the game. Was not a good game but the result helped the conversation!

"So we continue to do our job. Is a really difficult moment. But today it was more important the win. I know the fans want to see much better football than this, I want to see so much better football than this but we need time. To win time we need to win games. We did that today but not in a good fashion.

"I think it’s not panic. In the first half, we were too late to every ball and we try to press a little bit high. We suffer with that, Mateus (Fernandes) between the lines, (Tyler) Dibling between the lines, (Kamaldeen) Sulemana with the pace.

"And is a different game from Liverpool and Arsenal. We have to stretch the team more, we leave Leny (Yoro) one against one, more spaces to cover, and we suffer more.

"Is not panic, we need and I need to understand again why we suffer in these kind of games and not in the big games where we are more compact, more near the ball and win the ball.

"I pay attention to all the things. This game was not a lack of effort. They try it, but (Manuel) Ugarte was really tired from first minute and you feel it when he ran for the ball and received the ball, all that stuff."

When asked why Ugarte was tired four days on from when United last played, Amorim replied: "I don’t know, I need to improve the training, sometimes the recovery of the players but these two games were really hard on the team. Sometimes we are tired not just the body but the mind.

"But this is a different game and we have to press more, the space is bigger, we are uncomfortable in the game, and then if we don’t manage the ball for so long we suffer and we feel it in the first half.

"Southampton left three against three in the back and we lost the duels. So I understand the game, I will watch the game and try and help the team to improve."