Rio Ferdinand has said Manchester United must accept the ridicule that will accompany their demotion into the Europa League, and ensure that their humiliating Champions League exit has a galvanising effect on the defence of their Premier League title.

United veered from Champions League runners-up in May into European football's second tier for the first time on Wednesday night when beaten 2-1 in Basel, a defeat that prompted criticism of the team's younger players by former captain Roy Keane, a staunch defence from Sir Alex Ferguson and claims of a lack of professionalism throughout the campaign from Patrice Evra.

Ferdinand contradicted the assessment that complacency was to blame for United's third group stage exit in 17 seasons, a view aired by Ferguson and Evra, with the manager restricting his criticism to the second-half performance at home to Basel. But he admitted the Premier League champions must now be prepared for the derision that will follow them into the Europa League and respond by seeking to lift the trophy in Bucharest next May.

"We have to be prepared, it's as simple as that," said Ferdinand, whose defensive colleague, Nemanja Vidic, is said by his agent to have sustained a cruciate ligament injury that will sideline him for several months. "No matter what gets said, ridiculed or not, we respect the tournament and will go in there to win it. A few weeks ago you guys were saying we had the best young players going, now you're obviously going to start questioning those young guys so sometimes it doesn't add up. You don't become a bad player in the space of two weeks … make your mind up."

Ferguson identified the 3-3 draw with Basel at Old Trafford as the game that "cost us" in Group C, with United having led 2-0, but Ferdinand is adamant a club that had reached three finals in the past four seasons did not treat the Champions League group stage lightly. "There is no complacency at this club because the manager wouldn't stand for it, so that's way off the mark," he said.

"I don't think it's a jolt. We know what direction we want to go in as players and a team. I don't think it's down to complacency or anything like that. At home we just didn't do it. In terms of performance, like against Basel, we dictated the game, controlled it, had possession of the ball and created chances but if you don't put the ball in the back of the net you don't deserve to go anywhere. We conceded three goals at home to Basel and that's self-harming.

"We are bitterly disappointed and the lads are devastated to have gone out of the tournament. We have to look back to the games at Old Trafford when we haven't finished teams off. We've not done enough to win games at home and the manager has always said if you don't win your home games you don't deserve to go through. That's been the case this season."

With Manchester City five points clear in the Premier League and interest in both the Champions League and Carling Cup over, Ferdinand insisted United will use their European exit as a spur towards retaining the title. He also believes the younger players singled out by Keane – Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Ashley Young – will learn from the bitter disappointment in Switzerland just as United's class of 2005 did when they exited the group stage in Benfica.

"This type of feeling, you don't want to feel it often," Ferdinand said. "The bitter taste that we have in our mouths, the younger players who have not been here long will know what it tastes like now and what it feels like. It's embarrassing to go out at this stage and any player with pride in his performance, his job and what he does doesn't want to feel that. All of our players, we don't like to go out of tournaments early and we'll try to rectify things this weekend [at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers]. European nights under the lights at Old Trafford, with the Champions League music coming on, is what you live for. We've gone out early this season and it's very disappointing, but we can't look at anyone else but ourselves."

United are waiting to discover how long Vidic will be sidelined for having been carried off in Basel with what appeared a serious knee injury. Ferguson hoped medial ligament damage would be "the worst it is" following an accidental tangle with the Basel goalscorer Marco Streller and, having only flown back to Manchester on Thursday afternoon, United's influential captain is unlikely to learn his fate until Friday