Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has warned that Manchester United will use the disappointment of Tuesday’s Champions League defeat as motivation going into the derby this weekend.
United host Manchester City at Old Trafford for the first derby of the season and go into the fixture off the back of the 3-2 loss to RB Leipzig which knocked them out of the Champions League.
But, Solskjaer is confident his team will not panic after the midweek result which consigned United to the Europa League after Christmas and again raised question marks over his credentials to be manager.
“Any player that plays football should be frustrated and disappointed when you have lost a game so that you want to bounce back and win the next one," said Solskjaer.
"I think we’ve shown that a few times this year that we’ve handled setbacks quite well.
“It’s important not to press the panic button every time. You know in football you can’t win every game, but there are games that you lose that will stick and hurt more than others that will have more consequences than others.
"Now, we’re facing the reality of not having the Champions League for the rest of the season so we need to make sure we move on, get back into the Champions League and how we do that is just by improving from last season.”
Solskjaer confirmed that Anthony Martial, who missed the midweek game with a knock, is fit to face City while Edinson Cavani will be assessed ahead of the game after missing the defeat in Leipzig with an injury.
United go into the game looking to make it five wins on the bounce in the league and Solskjaer believes his side have shown they are improving.
“I feel we're getting better and better, and looking more and more like a Manchester United team that I want with fast attackers, with dynamic,” Solskjaer explained.
“We’ve got good players and individual quality that can create magic out of nothing, that's always been the case at Man Utd.
"But we can see more of the penetration and the consistency that everyone says we don't have, we have won the last four in the league which is starting to become a good run and hopefully we can carry that on.”
