In exonerating van Nistelrooy, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gabriel Heinze from criticism, Ferguson has vowed not to ignore the frailties that were badly exposed by the three-time French champions, while Keane has admitted there will be tough times ahead unless the crass mistakes currently proving so costly can be erased.

“I suppose it was some turnaround in the second half but we couldn’t have done as badly as we did in the first,” he said.

“There were a lot of problems. The passing wasn’t up to scratch, we gave a couple of bad goals away and gave ourselves an uphill battle after half-time.

“You are always going to make it hard for yourself conceding goals like that. We are giving goals away at set pieces. We did it at Bolton on Saturday and against Lyon last night. It is a team problem.

“With the talent in our squad, we have a chance of winning any game but we need to improve drastically and let’s face it, there is plenty of room to do it.”

Keane has refused to apportion blame for the mistakes but given his significant blunders against Bolton and Lyon, it would be a major surprise if goalkeeper Tim Howard wasn’t taken out of the firing line for Monday’s key Barclays Premiership encounter with Liverpool.

Rio Ferdinand is also available for the eagerly-anticipated north-west derby following the completion of an eight-month ban that has proved so costly to United.

Having been put through extra training sessions in France, Ferdinand is almost certain to start against Rafael Benitez’s men, with Wes Brown either nudging John O’Shea out of the right-back role or dropping out of the side altogether.

Phil Neville and Alan Smith will also be hopeful of a recall, while Louis Saha may make the bench if the Frenchman proves his fitness following a troublesome recent knee injury.

Nine points behind champions Arsenal with only five games of the new Premiership campaign gone, there are plenty of pundits who have already written off United’s title chances.

Keane is obviously not one of them and, as he pointed out, anyone who thinks United will just lay down and accept second best only needs to look at last night’s game for overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

“The comeback was one of the major positives because it showed the character we have in the squad,” he said.

“Any team that plays against us knows we will keep fighting to the very end. Throughout any campaign you are going to have your ups and downs. The first-half last night was certainly a down but at least we bounced back.

“It is only the second week of September and we know there is plenty of improvement to come.

“But if we show that kind of character for the rest of the season, I am sure we will be okay.”