Manchester United Treble winner Denis Irwin expects a hangover from their Europa League final defeat.
Irwin says manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will have to handle the disappointment in his squad in order to mount a better challenge next season.
He told MUTV: "It takes you a while to get over it. The next thing a lot of lads will join up with international teams. When you join up with other players you probably get a bit of a ribbing, that's part and parcel of being a footballer. They'll probably forget about it playing for their countries but they'll come back for pre-season.
"They've got to get behind them as soon as possible. I'm sure Ole would get the lads together first game of pre-season, say 'great last season, we've got to challenge this year, iron up the inconsistencies, and go again.'
"This year, there's been progression. Third last year, just about on the last day, this year second place cemented it a lot earlier too. Get to a final, great opportunity of winning, unfortunately we haven't taken advantage of that. Got to go again next year, be closer in the Premier League and be ready from the off.
"We got off to a real indifferent start this season, whether that's down to Europa League exploits in Germany last year, but we were very inconsistent early on. We've got to iron out all them out and go from the very start."
