Ole Gunnar Solskjaer defended his positive demeanour after Manchester United conceded an equaliser to Huddersfield in their embarrassing Premier League draw.
In the aftermath of Isaac Mbenza's 60th minute equaliser, there was a stoppage as ground staff repaired the corner flag Mbenza had dismantled during his celebrations. The broadcasters homed in on Solskjaer, sat alongside assistant manager Mike Phelan, and co-commentator Gary Neville noted 'Solskjaer is smiling at them, they’re that bad'.
During his rant about the club, Neville admitted there is 'nothing about this United team I like at all. They’re just awful' and when the camera switched to executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, he added: "He’s had seven of them (summer transfer windows) already so maybe it will be better this time."
Although Solskjaer was not asked about Neville's scathing critique of the current United squad, his smile was mentioned to him at the post-match press conference.
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"I am an optimist by nature," Solskjaer said. "Of course, I think the best way to approach a game of football is to smile but I don’t know what period you were thinking about.
"I think I was smiling more in the first 20-25 minutes, because I thought we played some good stuff. But we weren’t able to capitalise on the chances we created and we weren't good enough in the end.
"I wasn't smiling because... we are all disappointed we aren't in the Champions League but I think that is a true reflection. The table seldom lies in the end."
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In his interview with the broadcasters, Solskjaer added: "We haven't taken enough points, won enough games, scored enough goals. It's always difficult when you lose your manager halfway through the season. It's caught up with us a little bit.
"It shows us where we are. we're not living in fantasy land thinking we can catch the top two, we're far away but we shouldn't be speaking about being far off the top four at Manchester United.
"We're many levels [behind] at the moment, that's the size of the challenge, it's a great challenge for us but I'm sure we'll make it."
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