Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes he can survive Manchester United's dreadful run of form and confirmed he did speak to Sir Alex Ferguson when he visited the club's training complex this week.
The Manchester Evening News revealed Ferguson, the former United chairman Martin Edwards and ex-chief executive David Gill all arrived at Carrington on Tuesday, when the United squad returned for their first training session following the 5-0 home humiliation by Liverpool on Sunday.
Despite attempts to downplay Ferguson's visit and suggestions he did not speak with Solskjaer, the United manager clarified he did have a chat with the Scot.
"Yes, on both accounts, if that's short and sweet," Solskjaer replied when asked if he spoke with Ferguson and felt he could survive United's perilous period. "Joking apart, we had a commercial day, and Sir Alex came to do some commercial stuff and I met him and spoke to him for a brief moment because he was in there with Cristiano [Ronaldo].
"I've been through some very bad moments here as a player and when I've been a manager I've dealt with setbacks.
"There probably have been two or three crises, at least, since I became the manager here and one thing I can say is I'll always give it a good shot and fight back."
Solskjaer likened the manner of United's defeat to a 'punch-drunk boxer' against Liverpool and suggested they should mirror Tyson Fury's strategy whenever he suffers a knockout.
"Of course, you have to hold hands up and that performance is not acceptable," Solskjaer added. "And we have to look at why it was not acceptable and why it went as I did.
"I use the analogy: it felt like we were a boxer being punch-drunk, got knocked down in the first four minutes or in the first round. We had a chance, we conceded a goal, we wanted to sort it out, and went a bit too open and too frantic against a good team.
"You see Tyson Fury when he gets knocked down a couple of times, it's remarkable how calm and composed he is when he's on the floor, counts to six, seven, eight, he gets up and gets read. We got up too early and tried to sort it.
"Minds have to be better but we've had to look at different things as well, the communication has to be direct."
