Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim insists "I don't care" about any criticism that comes his way, following their 4-1 defeat to Newcastle United.

The Red Devils suffered their 14th loss in the Premier League this season - their joint-most in a single campaign in the division - after going down at St. James' Park.

Although Alejandro Garnacho cancelled out Sandro Tonali's earlier volley, Newcastle ran away with the contest after the break, with Harvey Barnes scoring twice and Bruno Guimaraes also on target.

United dropped to 14th place, seven points adrift of the top half, with Amorim and his players likely to come under even further scrutiny.

However, the Portuguese maintains he is not affected by any negativity surrounding him.

"I understand [the criticism], but I don't care," he told Sky Sports. "Nothing is worse than losing games.

"People can say whatever they want to say. I don't want to defend myself or anything like that. If you look at our position in the table, it says it all. Losing games is the hardest part of this job, by far.

"We made a lot of mistakes that made it harder to win a game [on Sunday]. It's a little bit of everything. It's hard to point to one thing.

"It's really hard to win against these top teams like Newcastle. When we make mistakes to help the opponent, it's even harder. I think you can see that we can do so much better."

Nevertheless, Amorim was keen to look forward and switch his focus to Thursday's crucial Europa League quarter-final second leg against Lyon.

The tie is finely poised at 2-2 ahead of the showdown at Old Trafford, where United will aim to keep their final silverware quest of the season on track.

The Red Devils would secure Champions League football next term by going all the way in the competition, which would provide a welcome salvation to an otherwise difficult campaign.

"All the mistakes we made today, we cannot make on Thursday," Amorim continued. "Of course, it's really important. We have a chance to get [in the] Champions League.

"It will be really hard. We have to focus on that and get to the next stage. It's a different game. We need to give something to our fans and to go to the next stage."