Ruben Amorim has said the challenges faced in his turbulent first three months in charge of Manchester United have made him a “more complete manager”. The Portuguese took over in November and has overseen five victories in 16 Premier League matches, leaving them 14th.

One of those wins was at Fulham, who visit Old Trafford on Sunday in the FA Cup fifth round. The holders face a crucial week with a last-16 first leg trip to Real Sociedad in the Europa League on Thursday with redundancies off the pitch and poor performances on it.

“Better is hard to say because I’m not winning games, so I don’t feel like I’m a better coach,” Amorim said when asked if he had improved since arriving at Old Trafford. “I lived here for three months, I lived certain things. I’m a more complete manager because sometimes you need to lose and be in a poor situation to grow.

“I felt that during these three months, I’m not going to die if I lose three games in a row. That is something that I learned here and I can cope to maintain the energy. I’m learning a lot about myself and the players, but I prefer to win games.”

Amorim has stuck rigidly to his preferred 3-4-3 formation as he attempts to weed out those players incapable of fitting into the system. It is likely the club will attempt to overhaul the playing staff during the summer but Amorim accepts United need to sell first and has no qualms about telling players they are not wanted.

“That is not a difficult situation because everybody understands that in football, sometimes you stay, sometimes you have to move on,” he said. “If I know how to explain, I can do it, and I like to do it because I want to be clear.

“When I was a player, I tried to use all that experience. When you are honest with someone, they can take it. In the beginning it’s hard, but they will understand.

“I’m quite honest with my players and they already know that sometimes they have to move on at the end of the season.”

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has already implemented 250 redundancies and a further 200 are planned as part of the latest round of cost-cutting, which also involves the end of free lunches for staff.

“I see a clear path,” Amorim said. “I see that from the board also, because they are doing difficult changes that are not popular, but they are doing them because they have a vision – I think that is clear.

“In the future we need to show some results, because you can do a lot of changes but if you don’t have results, people don’t feel confident and happy. Now it’s hard, but we are doing things to achieve success in the future.”

Amorim has already made big calls, seeing no role for Marcus Rashford and Antony. “I’m trying to understand everything in my team to help them to be better,” he said. “When I feel that something is going to harm the team, I’m quite ruthless. I know for sure that we are not going to win with certain behaviours. I’m trying to make a balance of everything and just help the team.”