Sir Alex Ferguson set to axe seven flop Man U players for crucial tie against Man City

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is ready to axe seven flop players including big stars Dimitar Berbatov and Gary Neville for the Carling Cup semifinal match against bitter rivals Manchester City tomorrow.

Anderson, Gabriel Obertan, Danny Welbeck, Darron Gibson and Fabio could also be ditched.

Old Trafford boss Ferguson was left stunned by Sunday's FA Cup loss to Leeds, The Sun reports.

His No.2 Mike Phelan said: "We will start to think a little bit differently with our selection for Wednesday.

"I don't think we did ourselves justice against Leeds in certain departments of the field. We had players out there who play for Manchester United and they did not perform as expected of them," he said.

Ferguson had virtually selected his team to make the short journey to Eastlands, but the 1-0 defeat by Leeds has forced him to think again.

Phelan insisted they expected the XI put out against the League One side to be comfortably good enough to win.

"We either go experienced, or we go youth. This time we picked a bit of a mixture and it didn't work," Phelan said.

"This is a major blow. We need to progress in this cup. We need to be in finals of cup competitions like this. To go out at the stage we have is unacceptable really," he added.

Centre-back Nemanja Vidic is likely to miss the City clash after pulling out of the Leeds game with a trapped nerve.