The Red Devils remain in the bottom half of the Premier League table after drawing 1-1 with Chelsea.
However, Van Nistelrooy was not critical of the players, stating they gave it everything.
He stated: “I think today what you saw, against a very good Chelsea side we competed very good. I think we had the better chances, I felt slightly disappointed we didn’t take the three points.
“This is the way forward for this group of players and I saw some great performances today, I saw some excellent performances. I have to say from the back, Lisandro and Matthijs did a great job. I think Nous Mazraoui had an excellent game and Casemiro is doing a great job. Bruno took the responsibility; he was involved in all the attacks. I don’t think anyone really missed out today.”
On the team spirit, he added: “I think the players take a lot of responsibility. They also know they needed to change and I tried to help them, get them focused on their jobs and get the best out of them and motivate them to become the best they can. I can do that for two more games.
“It’s a good group of players, a good group of people and I think what you saw today was a team with spirit that left everything they had on the pitch. You saw the connection there with the fans that then occurs and that’s what we’re looking for. I can’t wait to build on that for Thursday.”