New Dundee interim manager Neil McCann has said he can guide the team to safety and players can prove they're in a false position.

McCann is the surprise replacement for Paul Hartley, who was sacked after a run of seven straight defeats saw Dundee fall into the relegation play-off spot with just five league games remaining.

The former Dundee, Rangers, Hearts and Falkirk player is leaving a job as a pundit with Sky Sports for his first job in management and is convinced he can hit the ground running and outperform the teams around Dundee.

"I'm massively confident," he said. "I'm not going to kid anybody on and say that it's going to be easy because it's not. There's a lot of hard work ahead.

"The other sides in and around us will have that same mentality but it's not any use speaking here at this desk or saying it's going to be that way at training.

"The only thing that matters is when you cross the line and the guys have been close on a number of occasions, not being able to get that win, but all it takes is one to fall and the confidence will rise, the squad will start to take a few more risks that maybe they've just not been taking.

"It's my job now to extract that confidence, bring it out to the fore and hopefully that'll be enough to get us the points."

Mccann, who has coaching expeirence from his time with Dunfermline and holds his UEFA Pro license, said that he knew he had the quality at his disposal to take the team up the table but said that confidence may be an issue within the squad.

"Yes, we're in a poor position at the minute but equally we're not far off of Kilmarnock and it's important that we get this squad, which is absolutely good enough, safe and I've seen it myself over the season," he said. "And I know what it's like to be lacking in confidence as a player when you're searching for wins and they're not coming.

"I've seen it myself when I was at Dunfermline and we'd been playing really well, wouldn't take a chance and then we'd concede one and you'd think 'How does that happen?' so it's my job now to sit with the players and try and get them to understand the requirements that's going to get them that extra yard or that extra wee bit that's going to be enough to see us win games of football.

"I am surprised at the position they're in because you look at the squad and I know there has been investment within the team and I think Paul has been backed. He would be the first to say that.

"Paul will be disappointed where the club are, there's no doubt of that. I think the players will be disappointed.

"But equally so, you can say that about the other sides fighting around the bottom. I'm not going to disrespect them and say we're much better than them because they'll be saying the same thing.

"It's up to me and it's up to the players and staff to pull together and make sure that we prove that we shouldn't be in that position. I'll be doing that."

The 42-year old refused to look ahead at the prospect of taking the job on a permanent basis, insisting his only concern was with effecting change in the short-term. He said there would be "a conversation" at the end of the season but just wanted to focus on equipping the players for the remaining games.

"I'm just looking at these five games," he said. "Dundee are a massive club with a huge fan base and I know what the club has to offer.

"The squad at my disposal now is more than good enough. With respect to the other teams and their managers, we'll be giving absolutely everything.

"It's up to me to be giving game plans and tactics that'll allow the players to go out with the knowledge that they need to win a game of football.

"But we all know it comes down to the players and it'll be up to them to then carry that out."