In mid-September, Newcastle found themselves on the edge of the top six following three successive victories.
Now, given their poor recent form, United are down in 14th place and only four points clear of the relegation zone.
In order for the Magpies to return to winning ways and drag themselves out of this slump, Benitez believes Newcastle fans must continue to support the team - rather than single out individual players for criticism.
Benitez added: “We started this season very well. Now, we are losing games. Everyone is starting to question the players. Why?
“The reality is that if we stick together and do what we have to do and compete against these teams who have bigger wages and transfer fees than us, we can compete if we do everything right. We will have injuries and we will make mistakes and will suffer.
“But on September 1 we knew it could be like this. We were surprised when the team was top six, top eight. The reality is that we have a team which has to compete at the bottom of the table.
“Competing means like the first half against Man Utd, even the first half against Watford. What we did in the second half is what I don’t like.
“I have to be sure we don’t repeat this performance, because we lost our organisation and the togetherness of the team.
“My focus now is to improve this team and I said before, I think we can stay in the Premier League and maybe we can do better. But we need to stay calm and we need to know that the target is 20 points now and 20-plus after.
“But it’s not that we are better than anyone if we don’t stick together. We can compete against a lot of teams if we work as a team. We cannot compete against teams if we start blaming each other and pass the blame, like in the past here, and then don’t take any responsibility.”