Evans: I Took A Step Back

Jonny Evans was outstanding against Liverpool and helped keep Fernando Torres and his team-mates quiet in the FA Cup third round win, but he admits he had to take stock and re-evaluate his approach after a tough first half of the season.

Evans is an outstanding prospect, but he suffered a loss of form earlier this season - as any young player does at one stage or another - but he has come back fighting.

"It's been difficult in terms of dealing with the mental side of it," he admitted to MUTV. "But I've always had confidence in my ability and great support from my family and the manager.

"I just had to step back and look at what things I needed to be doing - and that's just doing the basic things well, like defending and keeping clean sheets."

That's exactly what he did against Liverpool on Sunday alongside Rio Ferdinand, who Evans praised for his part in the shut-out of Torres and co. "Rio's been fantastic," he added. "He's had a stop-start couple of seasons, but he's played a lot of games and he's back playing well. He's got great experience, so that was good to have alongside me."

Evans even came close to scoring his first goal for United with a brilliant header from Nani's corner that smacked against the post just before half time. He must be wondering what he has to do to score a goal. "I was getting texts before the game from mates saying, 'I've got a pound on you to score at 14/1! I've hit the post three times and missed a few sitters, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

"We would have liked it to have been more comfortable. We came in at half time and we were still only a goal ahead. We wanted to get that second goal to make it more comfortable for ourselves. But Liverpool made it hard.

"People say it's tough against 10 men, and you have to pass it around well. We could maybe have done better in that respect. But we defended well and kept the clean sheet."

Evans will be hoping to build on this excellent display, but he knows there's still hard work ahead. "It's funny how things can change in football, and you can't become complacent. I just want to prepare and make sure I do well in my next game."