Manchester United need to quickly start turning draws into victories if they are to get themselves back into top-four contention in the Premier League, says Jose Mourinho.

United have failed to win any of their last four league encounters, drawing three, to slip 18 points off leaders Manchester City after 15 games.

Two of those draws came against strugglers Crystal Palace and Southampton, while they had to twice come from behind to earn a point against Arsenal on Wednesday.

That 2-2 draw left Mourinho's men a lowly eighth in the table heading into Saturday's clash with bottom-club Fulham at Old Trafford, and the United boss knows things need to change.

"I sat here a few weeks ago speaking about December and [having] no defeats – that's a reality," he told a media conference.

"[We have had] good fights, good spirit but just one victory against Young Boys [in the Champions League], and three draws, [but] we need points, Fulham are the same.

"I want to be positive and think we are going to win, but if we don’t [win], give credit to people who deserve credit.

"The game is not 11 v 0, it's going to be 11 v 11, with good players on the other side, the position and points [total] don't say much about [the] potential of the team.

"They have one of the two most important managers in Premier League history, they have the potential to come here and give us a difficult match."

United go into Saturday's home fixture with injury concerns – particularly at the back – and Mourinho hopes to get good news after Friday's training session.

"I don't know," he said when asked for an update on his walking wounded. "The training session at 11 o'clock will give us some answers.

"[Chris] Smalling, [Phil] Jones, [Anthony] Martial, [Eric] Bailly, of course [Victor] Lindelof and Alexis [Sanchez] we don't even speak about.

"But we need answers, and for sure we're going to play with players not in the maximum of their potential, but players who will put themselves available for the team like Smalling did in the last match, like Jones did against Southampton, players in difficulty who go one step forward to try and help the team."