Fred has delivered a clear message to his Manchester United teammates as they continue to target a Champions League spot before turning their attention to the start of a new era. Having seen their top-four ambitions stutter, the Old Trafford giants are right back in that mix thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner scored a devastating hat-trick to gun down Norwich on Saturday afternoon and United took full advantage of surprise losses for Tottenham and Arsenal. Qualification for the marquee European competition remains a short-term objective for United but Fred - currently out with a hip injury - admits that must simply be the springboard for bigger and better things.
Speaking to MUFC media, the Brazilian said: "The key thing is for us to be united as a group, together on the pitch. We're aware of the difficult period we're going through. We know the challenge the next few games represent.
READ MORE: Jurgen Klopp shares Manchester United top-four prediction before Liverpool fixture
"If we're united and together as a group I'm sure we'll achieve this. We have world-class players who can make a difference on the pitch at any time. We need to play together, we need to be compact and listen to the manager, train well during the week.
"This is all key for us going into the weekend and for the remaining games. Win the games and meet our objective. In order to do this, we need to fight together as a team."
Fred added: "As a team we know we need to improve a lot and this is well below what we wanted for this season. We've still got the goal of achieving a Champions League place, but we wanted to go further. We want to create a great project and squad to win trophies again - and put United back on top where they have always been."
Sign up to our United newsletter so you never miss an update from Old Trafford this season.
