Ruben Amorim damaged a TV screen in Manchester United’s dressing-room during a furious rant at his players after Sunday’s defeat by Brighton.

United’s head coach is understood to have lost his temper as he launched a post-match inquest at Old Trafford and caused the damage by accident.

Afterwards, United’s players were struck by how ‘sad’ and ‘deflated’ Amorim appeared after a seventh defeat in 15 games left him at his lowest ebb since arriving from Sporting Lisbon in November.

They are said to still be behind Amorim but concerned that he is running out of energy to turn United’s season around.

The 39-year-old left the dressing-room for his post-match press conference where he described his team as ‘the worst maybe in the history of Manchester United’.

Amorim was clearly irritated by his players’ lack of tactical discipline and warned: ‘Everybody was changing position and that is something I will not see again.’

Amorim said: ‘I am saying that because we have to acknowledge that and to change it. Here you go: your headlines.

‘It’s unacceptable to lose so many games. For any Premier League club, so imagine Manchester United?

‘The opponents are better than us in many details. I am just here to help my players, but we need to understand we are breaking all the bad records.

‘In 10 games in the Premier League, we won two. I know that. Imagine what this is for a United fan. Imagine what this is for me. We are getting a new coach who is losing more than the last coach. I have full knowledge of that.’

Amorim warned that the worst may be yet to come because he will not change his tactics.

‘I knew it was going to be hard to put a completely new idea in the moment, but when you lose games it becomes really hard,’ he added. ‘So that’s why I’m telling you we are going to suffer because I will continue to do the same. I am not going to change, no matter what.’

Amorim also criticised his players for losing discipline and shape towards the end of the game.

‘Everybody was changing position and that is something I will not see again. We can lose but we have to maintain position,’ he said.

‘We try to have possession and control the ball, but the players are anxious. This is not acceptable.

‘I know we can succeed but we need to survive this moment. I am not naive. We need to survive now.’

United have now lost six of their 12 league homes games, which is their worst record in 131 years. They last hit such a nadir in the 1893-94 campaign when the club was known as Newton Heath.

It was also their fourth loss in their last five games at Old Trafford, and they could well have lost all of those games if Amad Diallo hadn’t produced a late hat-trick against Southampton.

Pundits have questioned whether Amorim’s candid public comments are helpful or detrimental for motivating the squad.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, Jamie Carragher said: ‘I think it was one of the most bizarre and ridiculous things I’ve ever heard a manager say. Why you would make a comment like that?

‘That’s the type of comment a pundit would make, and he’d have to defend that. I don’t know what he gains from that, what the benefit is. We all know it’s a poor Manchester United team.

‘He’s just blew something up, a quote that will follow him for the rest of the season. He said to the journalists there, “I’ve given you your headline” – why you would want to do that as a manager I will never know.’

‘I’ve got not much sympathy for the players in that Manchester United dressing room, they’ve been a joke for a few years now.

‘A few weeks ago after they played Liverpool there was an interview with Lisandro Martinez where he was talking about the mentality and tapping his head.

‘I nearly burst out laughing when I saw that to be honest, the amount of times Manchester United have basically threw the towel in with bad performances over the past four or five years.

‘From the manager’s point of view how can he go into the dressing room between now and the end of the season and continually build them up and give them belief, if he’s said they’re one of the worst teams in Manchester United history.

‘I’d be very surprised if the powers-that-be above him aren’t having a strong word with him. You can’t speak like that as manager of Manchester United. You don’t pour petrol on the flames’.