Ralf Rangnick told the Manchester United players to feed off the energy of the "best fans in the world" to inspire their first-half blitz to see off Burnley.
United scored three goals in front of the Stretford End in the first 45 minutes of the game to secure a 3-1 win against the Clarets that landed Rangnick a third win in four Premier League games.
The first half was their most attacking performance to date under the German and goals from Scott McTominay and Cristiano Ronaldo, either side of a Ben Mee own goal, helped to land the three points.
It was a return to form for United after an underwhelming performance at Newcastle on Monday night and McTominay revealed the message had been to use the energy of the fans to produce an aggressive and front-foot performance.
“The first game at home for a long time, the energy was there, it helps with three goals in the first half, it’s a massive plus, if you do that against Newcastle the energy in the second half is more," he told MUTV.
“It’s fine margins in football, the criticism after Newcastle was justified, we took it on board, tonight the crowd was with us, but we’ve got the best fans in the world, the manager said that in the changing room before the game so we had to use that motivation and adrenaline to go and perform. Second half was a bit flatter but it was about game management."
McTominay opened the scoring with his first goal of the season and created Ronaldo's by having a shot that Wayne Hennessey had to turn onto the post. The Scottish midfielder then came close again after the break and he said Rangnick had preached to the squad the importance of getting more players into the box before the game.
“Tonight I could have had more than one goal, that’s part and parcel of what the manager wants, he wants players to get in the box," he said.
"We said it before the game, we need to get more bodies in the box and be more involved with getting crosses into the box. It felt like we did that in the first half. The message at half-time was to do that again."
McTominay's more attacking role saw him break forward in place of right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka at times, a ploy that had been thought up before kick-off.
“Whenever the ball was on the left and we were attacking I said to Aaron you stay and I will go on the box," he said. "It's all about discipline and that’s what the coach wants, he doesn’t want counterattacks. I thought we did well in that respect."
