Ruud van Nistelrooy has told Rasmus Hojlund to have more faith in his own abilities as he prepares to try and form a crucial part of Ruben Amorim's Manchester United side.

Hojlund is United's leading striker, but he remains a raw No.9 and has 18 goals in 53 appearances for the club so far. A goalscoring centre forward is a key pillar in the system Amorim has used at Sporting, and he has helped Viktor Gyokeres develop into one of Europe's most sought-after attackers.

The 26-year-old scored a hat-trick in Sporting's 4-1 Champions League win against Manchester City on Tuesday night, taking his tally for the season to 23 goals in 17 games and 66 in 67 games since he moved to Lisbon from Coventry City.

Gyokeres has a EUR100million release clause in his contract, and since Amorim's appointment as United's next head coach, he has been linked with a move to Old Trafford. However, the club spent PS72m on signing Hojlund from Atalanta and PS36.5m on 23-year-old Joshua Zirkzee, who hasn't scored since his debut in August.

Ruud van Nistelrooy's spell as interim manager will end after this week's fixtures against PAOK on Thursday and Leicester City on Sunday. He offered Hojlund some advice on fulfilling his potential, with the former United striker insisting he believes the Dane can take his game to the next level.

"Stay calm and believe in himself, believe in his qualities like I do, like his teammates do," he said. "He knows he's young, he's promising, it's daily work which he's putting in which in the end will pay off, not only for him but also for his teammates. I'm confident in that."

Hojlund has two goals in 10 games this season and had only one touch in the Chelsea penalty area at the weekend, winning a penalty when he poked the ball around goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.

Van Nistelrooy accepts there will be times when the 21-year-old has to drop deep but wants him in the box as often as possible to help change games.

"Most goals are scored in the penalty area, that's where we want to get our players as much as we can," he said. "It depends on the games, there have been games we arrived many, many times and created many chances, we couldn't convert them all and that cost us a couple of results.

"You have to deal with the circumstances, when he needs to hold up play and get players into third-man positions and play on from there he does a brilliant job. He's a guy who can change a game in a second."

Amorim's Sporting side has scored 35 goals in 10 league games this season, and his forwards have been prolific. Van Nistelrooy believes that can be carried over to the United side and blamed their woes in front of goals, with just nine in 10 Premier League games, on missing chances rather than not creating them.

"I don't agree that we didn't create enough chances," he said. "I think if you look at the statistics we're one of the teams that's creating the most chances. It's the conversion.

"That's why I said I'm not worried, we're creating the chances. With the talent we have, they are still young, there is lots of potential. When results keep coming confidence will rise and that's the key thing with scoring goals, confidence."