Manchester United must become much more solid defensively if their misfiring attack is to start performing, believes Mikael Silvestre.
United have struggled in recent weeks with results now matching their poor performances under Ralf Rangnick, with their last two outings being a loss to Wolves and a draw to Aston Villa.
Goals have been particularly hard to come by, with United only scoring more than once in the German's eight games in charge on two occasions as the club's expensively assembled forward line's struggles continue.
Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho are yet to score under Rangnick, while Cristiano Ronaldo, Mason Greenwood, Bruno Fernandes and Edinson Cavani have just six goals between them.
A lack of creative spark has been a huge problem for Rangnick so far and Silvestre believes the answer lies in making the team more defensively sound.
"It's difficult to point at exactly the issues there because for some players it's a lack of confidence, for some of them it's a lack of energy because they have been overused or overplayed," he told MEN Sport, in association with Slingo.
"At the end of the day, because of the balance of the team hasn't been good and when you're conceding goals you're not committing fully to going forward, you're concerned about protecting your goal.
"So once the structure in the team is more solid then going forward there should be an improvement. Bruno was tired, he had a dip in form, against Villa he had a big influence.
"It's a number of things, there's no correlation between those things, but you add those things and that's why at the moment it's not clicking. So work and time will help the things to settle."
One player who is particularly struggling lately is Rashford. The forward has just three goals to his name this season, all of which were scored within his first four games of the season after returning from shoulder surgery, and looks completely bereft of confidence.
However, Silvestre has no doubt that he will get back to his best.
"I think he needs to let go of the frustration and just keep focusing on working hard," he added. "Because he's got that in him.
"Don't look at the outcome. He's a good finisher, he has good quality and it will come back. I'm not concerned because he has the right mentality and I think people will support and help him at United."
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