Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says he has full faith in David de Gea after critics rounded on the "top goalkeeper" following Manchester United's Champions League exit.

United great Paul Scholes accused De Gea of bottling it as he was afraid of getting hurt when Justin Kluivert put RB Leipzig 3-0 up in a crucial Group H encounter on Tuesday.

The Red Devils set up a tense finale by scoring twice in quick succession late on, but crashed out with a 3-2 defeat to the Bundesliga side.

De Gea also came in for criticism last season following some basic mistakes and his performance in midweek led to more calls for Dean Henderson to replace the Spain international.

United boss Solskjaer gave his backing to De Gea ahead of the derby with Manchester City at Old Trafford on Saturday.

He said in a press conference on Friday: "I think David's a top goalkeeper, of course I do, and rightly so he's on the lists of being the best goalkeeper in Europe.

"He's handled criticism before and setbacks before, he's a man that we really rely on and hopefully he's not affected by criticism and I don't think he will be.

"Every goal a goalkeeper concedes, you'll be disappointed with."

United have won four consecutive Premier League matches and Solskjaer is confident they are heading in the right direction despite their European failure.

"Yes, I feel we're getting better and better and looking more like a United team that I want with fast attackers, dynamic," the former Norway striker said.

"We've got good players and individual quality that can create magic out of nothing, that's always been at United but we can see more of the penetration and consistency everyone says we don't have.

"We've won our last four in the league which has become a good run and hopefully that continues."