Ruud van Nistelrooy bids farewell with a triumphant 3-0 victory against Leicester City

After joining as one of Erik ten Hag's assistants in the summer, the former Red Devils striker took on the role of caretaker manager following his Dutch compatriot's dismissal in late October, following a 2-1 loss to West Ham United.

Van Nistelrooy’s four-match interim stint yielded three wins, against Leicester in the Premier League and League Cup and Paok in the Europa League, and a draw with Chelsea in the Premier League.

Highly rated Sporting Lisbon coach Ruben Amorim will take over from Nov 11, with van Nistelrooy hoping to stay on as an assistant to the Portuguese.

In their last match before November international break, United captain Bruno Fernandes capped his 250th appearance for the club with the opener on 17 minutes.

He said: “It was a long time that I wasn’t scoring and now goals are coming in the last few games. Another clean sheet was important for us to bring back the fortress we had here...

“Ruud van Nistelrooy fills the club, he loves the club, he wants to bring joy to the players. He brought everyone with a smile to the games, he just wanted us to enjoy it. We wanted to say goodbye as a manager for him properly because he did good things for us.

“It’s a new era, a new manager means everything changes but what hasn’t changed is that this club has to get back to where it belongs.”

A quickly taken throw in saw Amad Diallo play a neat backheel to Fernandes, who drove towards goal before unleashing a shot from outside the box past Leicester goalkeeper Mads Hermansen.

Wilfred Ndidi then had Leicester’s best chance of the opening half around 10 minutes later when he latched on to Facundo Buonanotte’s ball over the top, but goalkeeper Andre Onana rushed out to close the angle and block the shot.

Fernandes should have doubled his tally seven minutes before the break but he could not connect cleanly with Noussair Mazraoui’s cross and the ball came off defender Victor Kristiansen for an own goal past Hermansen.

Before the match, van Nistelrooy said United need to find the net more often and his team duly obliged on Nov 10.

So often profligate this season, the Red Devils made the most of their chances against the Foxes.

Eight minutes from time, substitute Alejandro Garnacho made it 3-0 to seal the match and atone for earlier, when he could not sort his feet out after latching on to a good long pass forward.

Fellow substitute Christian Eriksen started the move with a lovely no-look reverse pass which took several Leicester players out of the equation.

That allowed Fernandes to surge forward and feed Garnacho, who cut onto his favoured right foot and unleash another lovely shot from outside the box past Hermansen.

That assist means Fernandes has been directly involved in 100 goals in 170 Premier League appearances, needing just one more match to reach that feat than club legend Cristiano Ronaldo.

In other Premier League matches on Nov 10, Newcastle United came back from a goal down to beat high-flying Nottingham Forest 3-1 at the City Ground, while Ipswich Town finally got their first league win on the 11th time of asking, beating Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 away.