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Manchester United left with mountain to climb after League Cup defeat to rivals City, says Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted Manchester United had given themselves a “steep mountain to climb” after branding their first-half battering at Old Trafford on Tuesday night as the worst performance of his managerial reign.

Manchester City will take a 3-1 lead into the second leg at the Etihad Stadium in three weeks’ time, with United fortunate that the Premier League champions did not have more goals to show for their supremacy in the opening 45 minutes when they collapsed under the pressure.

“From their goal until half time is [the] worst we’ve played but [it] doesn’t matter now, we’ve got to focus on Saturday on Norwich after that second half,” the United manager said.

“From the first goal until half-time, we just couldn’t cope with that setback, we were running in between, the pressure didn’t work, we let them play, heads dropped and just made decisions we shouldn’t do and that needed sorting at half term.

“The second response was a good response. Even though it’s a steep mountain to climb, we can still climb it. We’ve got to get the second half mentality quicker  it can’t be me coming in at half-time.”

Solskjaer  whose side have now lost three of their last six games  admitted United’s struggles were a reminder that it will take time and investment to transform the club’s fortunes.

“I’ve said before it’s not a quick fix  the two teams [City and Liverpool] you’re talking about are the best in the world, Europe,” he said.

“It’s [the rebuild] something that we’ve started and I think you can see we’re still a way off. We started something that needed doing.”

Ashley Young is in talks with Inter Milan about a transfer to Italy but Solskjaer claimed he needed to be adding players  not losing them.

“Tonight’s not the time to talk about players leaving because we need the players we have in the squad and we’ve got a few months left of this season,” said Solskjaer, who admitted Harry Maguire was unlikely to be fit to face Norwich. “We can’t weaken ourselves, we need to strengthen ourselves, if any movement is going to happen. I don’t know what you're talking about  you’ve got to ask Ash.

“If something is there for us [in the transfer window], I’ve got the backing to do something, but if it isn’t the right thing we won’t do anything.”

Pep Guardiola, the City manager, applauded his side but said United’s dramatic Champions League comeback against Paris St-Germain last season should be a reminder to his players that the tie is not over. United overturned a 2-0 first leg deficit to win 3-1 and progress on away goals.

“A good result but it’s not over because it’s United and we’ve seen how many times… last season was a good example against PSG,” he said. “Hopefully we can make a good game and reach the final again. We play United, what do you expect, a 7-0 win? In general, it was an incredible performance at Old Trafford.”