Criticism of the European team for their Ryder Cup thrashing by the United States was unfair, says three-times major winner Padraig Harrington, but it will be used to drive them to victory next time.
Harrington, a member of the team which lost 16.5 points to 11.5 in Louisville, Kentucky last month, said the US had been deserved winners and no one should be blamed for the defeat.
"It was a disappointment, for sure, but not as disappointing as (the last defeat) in 1999," the Dubliner said this morning.
"The US team deserved the win this time. Why we lost, we could talk about it for a long time . . . next time we'll have home advantage and the fact that we lost makes us more motivated and as a team, very strong."
Europe's captain Nick Faldo came under fire at Valhalla Golf Club for overlooking Cup stalwarts Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie as his two wildcard picks, opting instead for Paul Casey and Ian Poulter.
But Harrington defended Faldo and said critics should focus on the performance of the team, not just the result.
"When people analyse things after the event, they look at the result and decide that something wrong happened, we have seen that in the Ryder Cup over the years," he said.
"A captain has done a bad job and won and he gets a lot of praise.
"The captain can do everything right and still lose. Every losing US captain has had a lot of criticism, it's just about results and results don't always reflect the performance."
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