Peter Schmeichel believes Manchester United must prioritise the Premier League this season – even if it comes at the expense of winning trophies.

Second-place United have little chance of lifting the domestic title this season due to runaway leaders Manchester City, who are 15 points clear of their neighbours at the top.

Jose Mourinho’s side won both the Europa League and EFL Cup last term and can still go for glory in the FA Cup and Champions League, with the last-16 tie against Sevilla looming.

However, Schmeichel insists United must pour all their energy into cracking the top four – they are currently six points ahead of fifth-place Tottenham – after finishing down in sixth last season.

“The key is improvement, success has got to be a better league position than last season,” the Dane told Sport360. “I know United won the League Cup and the Europa League but you have to separate those out.

“Yes they’re trophies and they’re nice to have, but for me success has to be a better league position. We’re going well in the Champions League as well so let’s see what happens there as well.”

United have not looked close to winning the Premier League title since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 and former goalkeeper Schmeichel admits the club are still feeling the aftershocks of his departure.

“We’re still catching up and rebuilding, which is not easy in this current footballing climate when everyone has a huge amount of money to spend,” he added.

“Manchester United is going in the right direction though as it was two very important people who left at the same time – Sir Alex and David Gill and so a lot of experience was lost.”

Schmeichel is currently in the country for the Abu Dhabi Invitational golf tournament, which is taking place at Yas Links over the weekend.

Dwight Yorke joins his former United colleague on a celebrity team that includes Ruud Gullit, Alessandro del Piero and Luis Figo.

The event, which concludes today, is raising money for the Cancer Care Patient Society – Rahma. For all the latest action, visit abudhabiinvitational.ae.

Keep up-to-date with the live action via Twitter @ADInvitational and Instagram @adinvitational.