Fergie:
"If people think I have lost my appetite then they don't know me. The criticism doesn't bother me and it never will. If I allowed it to bother me then it would manifest itself all the way through the club.
"What I will be looking to do is increase the squad in January. I am happy with the quality in my team, but we are relying too much on our younger players at a time when we are missing the experience of men like Roy Keane, Gary Neville and Gabriel Heinze.
"I am operating a small squad, and we'll get on with it.
"These young lads have done fantastically because they have never deserted their post. They may not be as voluble as experienced players. But make no mistake about it, they have the ability and they all want to play."
"I heard last week that somebody said Wayne Rooney has got to be the leader of the team.
"That's all very well. I would like to hope that is the case in terms of playing and ability, that he leads the way in many things because he is a phenomenal player, but you can't expect him to lead players around him when they are having bad spells in matches. Jesus Christ, the young player's trying to sort out his own game.
"The stance I take is, I don't criticise anyone within the club.
"That's the example I have to set. When you have young players, and we had four 21-year-olds on the pitch in our last game, what do you expect? Young players make mistakes.
"I've never had a player who is unbreakable. They all have a breaking point in terms of confidence. Every one. When you're losing games criticism can affect players in different ways. What we try to do is dismiss criticism from outside the club and concentrate on what we can offer to the player. Every player has to be encouraged through bad spells, that's what management is. Players depend on their manager, they depend on their coaches, they depend on people they can trust."
He criticises Keane for criticising:
"Of course there is criticism . . . and what you have to do as a manager is make sure that the criticism remains inside your doors. Anything we do at this club will remain indoors. I think that’s the example Manchester United set from their manager and that’s really important."