Edinson Cavani has urged Manchester United fans to “have faith in their team” after a poor start to the season for the Red Devils.

United are sixth in the Premier League table, nine points behind leaders Chelsea, and have won just one of their past six league games.

That run included a 5-0 home defeat to Liverpool, only ever losing by a larger margin to their bitter rivals in 1895 when they lost 7-1 at Anfield.

It was United’s heaviest home defeat to the Reds and the first time losing by five or more goals without scoring themselves at Old Trafford since a 5-0 defeat to Manchester City in February 1955.

While they eased the pressure on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer slightly with a 3-0 win at Tottenham in their following Premier League game, United were again played off the park by City in their next home match – it was their eighth Old Trafford loss of 2021, the most in a single calendar year since 1989.

Solskjaer’s men travel to Watford on Saturday aiming to get their campaign back on track, and Cavani hopes fans are not too disheartened.

Speaking to Manchester United’s official magazine, the Uruguayan striker said: “The message to the fans would be… to have faith in their team and to have faith in their players, who, without a doubt, will be trying hard to perform well and to keep growing and improving, so that the faith that they’ve shown us, we might be able to pay it back with good results, hard work and by winning.”

Cavani has 18 goals and six assists from his 47 appearances at United since signing on a free transfer from Paris-Saint Germain in October 2020.

The 34-year-old told Inside United about his faith, and the importance of believing in those around you.

“I think when you talk about faith, I don’t think you need to move the conversation directly on to religion,” he explained. “I believe that when someone mentions faith, it can be applied and can be practised in many other areas of life, in many other aspects of life.

“I think that faith is important for all human beings. Because in many things that we are going to do, we need to have faith. Have faith in our families, have faith in a friend. Have faith in your life partner. In your wife, your girlfriend. Have faith in your team-mates. Or have faith in your work colleagues.”