Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson says his young strikers are likely to go out on-loan in January. Ferguson blamed the Palace defeat of United's second-string side on the lack of competitive football that his young players have had, and said he may send Federico Macheda and Mame Biram Diouf out on loan in January.

He said: "The problem is the type of reserve league we have now, it's really a youth league, and that is a big problem.

"It [the defeat] bothers me in the sense that the level of training we do was let down.

"For us it was Rafael's first game, Darron Gibson's first game, Mame Diouf's only played four games this season, Macheda only his third game. That's not enough football to play in the quarter-final of a League Cup I'm afraid. That caught us and I was surprised of the level of fitness of Crystal Palace against us.

"In terms of match play we were certainly short."

Asked about the players going out on loan he added: "It works well for all young players to get game time and that's what we are looking at for Macheda and Diouf, they need game time, there is no question about that. Every young players wants to play and we have to give them that opportunity."