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Solskjaer hoping wives and girlfriends are helping his players train

SHOWS: GREATER MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, UK (APRIL 1, 2020) (MUTUV - SEE RESTRICTIONS BEFORE USE)

1. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MANCHESTER UNITED MANAGER, OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER, SAYING:

JOURNALIST: "First of all Ole, I suppose most important question is, how are you, how are your family getting on?"

SOLSKJAER: "No, I'm good, family's good. One of the downsides of football is that you don't really get too much time with your family. So, on the flipside, now you get loads of time with them. So, that's been nice to spend some time with them."

JOURNALIST: "I mean, you've got, you know, a busy job, a stressful job. But these are slightly different circumstances, so what can you do in terms of your actual job?"

SOLSKJAER: "Well the actual job, you keep in touch and you communicate with your staff, your players. Of course, you're used to seeing them every day for hours and hours, so it's different. And you just keep in touch with them, WhatsApp groups or messages. We plan of course, for whenever we get back, what kind of sessions for when we start. But it's such an unknown. We don't really have an idea yet or a hundred per cent idea of when we start."

JOURNALIST: "You say you're in touch with the players and the staff, how, I mean, how are you communicating? Obviously we're communicating via video messenger, how are you doing it?"

SOLSKJAER: "That's the good thing now with technology, we're lucky in that sense that we can keep in touch, we can see each other. We can send messages, you get the reply quickly. So, that's the way and you do the old-fashioned phone call and speak sometimes on the phone. So, we keep in touch regularly."

JOURNALIST: "And in terms of what the players are doing and obviously we've seen a lot on social media and they all seem to have gyms and fantastic facilities, but do they all have personal programs and things that they have to do?"

SOLSKJAER: "Yeah, they all, sorry there's just a message on my compute. Yeah, they've got their individual programs, they've got their own diets, of course, and this period as well could be used to work on something special, something specific for them. Individual roles, specific tasks. I'm in the garden with my kids of course. We're working on finishing, so strikers should be working on their finishing or movement. And I think most of the players have got good facilities, decent gardens and hopefully, the wives or girlfriends can put some crosses in or some passes in."

STORY: Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is hopeful that his player's wives or girlfriends can play a part in their personal training exercises during isolation.

Speaking in a video interview on Wednesday (April 1) to MUTV, Solskjaer joked that his hope was for the better halves to "put some crosses in or some passes in.".

With the Premier League currently suspended until at least April 30 due to the coronavirus pandemic and the world at a standstill, Solskjaer says he's been spending quality time with his family, while keeping in touch with his players and stuff via messaging apps like WhatApp.

Manchester United's 2-0 win in their derby against Manchester City at Old Trafford on March 9th, was proof that the Norwegian's rebuilding project is heading in the right direction.

United are now 10 games unbeaten in all competitions and have kept clean sheets in eight of those games as they have risen up the table to be in position for a real push for Champions League qualification.

Liverpool have a 25-point lead over second-placed City, the current holders, which has left them just two wins away from the title.