Solskjaer promises to help Man Utd players find joy in playing football again

"The players need to show their true selves. We will try to help them regain the joy of playing football and look forward to seeing the fans again after each match," Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said.MUTVyesterday 12/20

The Norwegian was appointed as interim manager of Man Utd on December 19, a day after the club fired Jose Mourinho. Solskjaer has to take over a team that was invested up to 454 million dollars under his predecessor, but is playing poorly. Man Utd is currently sixth in the Premier League, 11 points behind the top 4 and 19 points behind leaders Liverpool. In the Champions League, they only continued as second in the group and faced PSG in the round of 16.

"I will do everything to get the club back on the road to success. The team must get back into the habit of winning and challenging for titles," Solskjaer stressed. "Whatever happened, let's forget it, everyone in the team will start again together."

The Norwegian's first game in charge will be Saturday's trip to Cardiff, where Solskjaer spent eight months as manager in 2014, but was unsuccessful. He failed to stay in the Premier League in 2013-14 and was sacked after a poor start to the Championship the following season.

But Solskjaer's previous record at his hometown club Molde was impressive, winning two Norwegian championships and a Norwegian Cup during his first spell in charge of the club from 2011 to 2014. Solskjaer returned to Molde in 2015 and signed a contract extension with them earlier this December, before being given the opportunity to leave for a challenge at Man Utd.

"The more mistakes you make, the more lessons you learn, I've made a few mistakes. I've won the national championship, I've won the National Cup, but I've also been relegated as a coach, so I know how to adapt to the coaching profession," Solskjaer said about the ups and downs in his coaching career.

As a player, Solskjaer played for Man Utd for 11 years (1996-2007), played 366 matches, scored 126 goals, won nine titles, including six Premier Leagues and one Champions League. Although he was just a "super sub", he was considered an idol of Man Utd fans and is best remembered for his injury-time goal, helping Man Utd beat Bayern 2-1 in the 1999 Champions League final.

However, Solskjaer is very realistic, saying that his past idol status is useless if he does not soon help the club return to the winning path. "Let's see how long the fans still see me as an idol," the interim coach humorously replied when asked about the feelings of Man Utd fans.

At Man Utd, Solskjaer will work with a coaching staff of three associates: Mike Phelan, Michael Carrick and Kieran McKenna. The latter two assistants were retained from Mourinho's old coaching staff, while Phelan was a trusted assistant to coach Alex Ferguson and has just been invited back.

"I will try to exploit Mike Phelan's experience. He has done everything at this club, has had a great influence on me and Mike's football knowledge is also very admirable," Solskjaer said about the assistant who was trusted by Alex Ferguson to be the first team coach of Man Utd many years ago.