Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson believes the agony of losing last season's Champions League final can be used as a major motivational tool ahead of Sunday's Community Shield showdown with Chelsea at Wembley.
United claimed their third consecutive Premier League crown, but were dashed in their bid to win back-to-back European Cups by Barcelona in Rome and Ferguson is determined to ensure his men use the experience in a positive manner.
"Adversity is always an important factor in developing and improving,'' he said. "I have always reacted well to adversity over the years and whenever we lose a match I tell my players that the next game is the important one - the match we have to focus on.
"That has always been the case here at the club. When you lose the last game of the season you have two or three months to reflect on the disappointment.''
"We have not enjoyed that. But we will cope - and we will bounce back.''
Ferguson has a defensive headache to deal with this weekend.
Nemanja Vidic, Wes Brown, Gary Neville and Rafael Da Silva all missed Wednesday's defeat of Valencia and have already been ruled out of the Chelsea encounter.
Ferguson also faces a selection dilemma between the goalposts after the club's regular goalkeeper Edwin Van Der Sar broke a finger in pre-season and was sidelined for two months.
The United manager is convinced his back-up keepers Ben Foster and Tomasz Kuszczak are both capable of filling the Dutchman's gloves. But he would not be drawn on who will start and if that player selected would become his regular first choice for the start of the season.
"It depends on performances really,'' Ferguson said. "If you have watched the games Ben and Tomasz have played, Tomasz has had more activity and therefore more saves to make. But I will speak to both of them about the situation.
"We have a selection dilemma as to who plays in goal on Sunday. It is not an easy one for me.''
Meanwhile, Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed there are no plans to add to the squad before the transfer window closes as he prepares his side for the Wembley clash.
"Now we stay with the players I've got. I don't want to take other players because the squad is very competitive,'' said Ancelotti.
"We don't need other players and I don't expect to make any more signings before the window shuts.''
Ancelotti also cleared the air over the futures of both midfielder Deco and defender Ricardo Carvalho.
Both players have been linked with a move to Inter Milan, now coached by former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, who also worked with the pair at Porto.
Mourinho moaned that Chelsea had made it difficult for Inter to sign the pair by increasing the size of the fee.
But Ancelotti claimed Chelsea had never considered selling the duo and confirmed they would be key assets in his squad this season.
"We never talked about selling Carvalho or Deco,'' added Ancelotti.
"They are important players for Chelsea. Carvalho is a very intelligent defender and Deco has a great quality. This team needs the quality of Deco. They will stay at Chelsea for this season.''
Chelsea have just two injury doubts for tomorrow's game with Yuri Zhirkov struggling with a knee problem and Joe Cole still recovering from his ligament injury.
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