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Solskjaer reacts to Man United’s Europa League final defeat

Solskjaer
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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has dubbed the season as an ‘unsuccessful’ one after watching his side lose in the Europa League final to Villarreal.

le Gunnar Solskjaer says Manchester United’s players must use the pain of their heartbreaking Europa League loss to Villarreal to fuel improvements as the manager underlined the need for summer signings.

Without a trophy since winning this competition in 2017, Jose Mourinho’s successor saw his side flounder in his first final as manager of the club he enjoyed so much success with as a player.

Wednesday’s match came 22 years to the day since Solskjaer’s last-gasp effort wrapped up the treble, but the United boss was unable to secure his first trophy at the helm in Gdansk.

Edinson Cavani levelled after Gerard Moreno had opened the scoring from a first-half free-kick in Poland where the match ended 1-1 after extra-time and went to penalties.

All outfield players scored as did Villarreal goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli, who saved David De Gea’s spot-kick to seal an epic 11-10 shootout triumph and send the yellow wall wild.

“That disappointment is the worst feeling,” said Solskjaer as per Sky Sports.

“These are the moments you remember the most in your career as a player, as a manager.

“There’s two ways. You can feel sorry for yourself and go on holiday and don’t do anything about it.

“Or you can go home and do something about it and come back even better, stronger, more hungry, ready from the first minute because we know that we didn’t start this season great.

“We fell behind, too far behind to be challenging for the league so we need to start really well.”

Solskjaer made some debatable decisions in the Europa League final, but the lack of elite strength in depth hampered his ability to change the game.

“I’ve been delighted with the effort, the desire, determination of all the players, you know, I can’t fault them at all,” the United manager said.

“We’ve probably done as well as anyone could imagine so, yeah, we who are here now need to do better.

“It’s important for us to go even further because I’m sure our contenders or challengers will also challenge to improve so we want to improve as much as we can.”

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