Confidence Key For Berbatov

Dimitar Berbatov gives his thoughts on staying confident in tough times, improving United's away form and the characteristics required to win the most unpredictable title race yet...

You're top of the league scoring chart. How confident are you when you step onto the pitch?
I'm confident right now. I'm a striker and if I'm scoring goals my confidence is high, but the important thing is how you react when you're not scoring. In those times it's essential you remain confident. You may be going through a period where you haven't scored for a few games, but you need to believe in yourself and believe that you can still do the things that lead to goals. It's difficult but you must try not to lose your confidence. Every player goes through those bad times – the truly top players distinguish themselves, however, by overcoming it.

Have you ever lost confidence during your time at United?
Of course. Many times. Sometimes you don't play well or you don't score and in those times the pressure comes from all around you, as well as from yourself. You can find yourself doubting yourself. But that's when you need to keep the faith and realise everything is going to be okay. You work hard in training and keep doing the things you're good at.

Already this season you've scored three hat-tricks. Where do you keep the match balls?
I keep them at home and now my friends and my team-mates have started to make fun of me because I'm collecting so many. But if I keep earning match balls then I'm sure nobody will complain too much. I get them signed by my team-mates and they're very precious to me – they remind me that with hard work and belief you can do a lot of good things.

Which team-mates have particularly helped your game this season?
Everybody. Here at this club everybody is a natural born leader in their own position and we all have 100 per cent confidence in each other. I know that our defenders are the very best and they can deal with any opponent they face. I trust them. Individually they are all great players, but the team is always the most important. It doesn't matter if we win 1-0 or 8-0 – we all feel as though we've all done it together.

Why have United looked like a different team away from home?
It'd hard to say. We haven't won as many games as we should have away from home, but that's not because we haven't tried to. We never go into a game looking for a draw or thinking we'd be happy with a point. We aim to win each game. The difficulty is that other teams lift their game when they play Manchester United. We're the biggest club, so it's only natural. I understand that, I've experienced it myself. That makes our job harder, but that's not an excuse: we need to be better away from home. At Old Trafford, we're doing really well. We're entertaining the fans, we're scoring a lot of goals. The aim is to bring that to our away performances.

Does it surprise you that for so long this season so many teams have looked capable of winning the league?
No, not at all. Next year there'll be even more teams up there. Football is changing all the time and, especially in England, the gap between the top clubs and the bottom clubs is closing. Everybody's strong, everybody's buying top players. It's great for football.

You won the league in your first season at United, in 2008/09. How does this current side compare?
It's not too different. Most of the players are the same. Yes, we sold one or two people but the core of the side has remained the same and that gives us an advantage. We're like one big family – everybody supports each other, not only on the pitch but off it, too. We're all great friends.

What have you made of your old club Tottenham this season?
Their position doesn't surprise me. When I was there I was aware of the young talent that is now their major asset – players like Aaron Lennon and Gareth Bale have matured and become great players. When I was there Bale was a talented teenager; now he's one of the best players in the world. I saw he had potential. He trained hard and was pushing to be involved. I'm glad they kept faith in him – other teams were interested in buying him – now they're reaping the rewards.

Is being involved in the Champions League latter stages a help or a hindrance when you're trying to win the league?
It's a tough one to answer. You start the season wanting to win everything and you keep your focus on that until it's out of your hands, until you get knocked out. Yes, it means that you'll have more games to play and it's harder to stay fresh, but the rewards can be so much greater. Personally, I hope we stay in all the competitions until the very end.

What's the most important thing a team must possess to win the league?
There isn't an answer to that. You need so many different things to come together for you. Here in England there are so many games and the schedule is so tight that often the team with the most experienced players and the team that keeps its players freshest ends up succeeding. If you do have those things, you'll do well. Oh, and not losing as many games as everybody else helps!

Dimitar Berbatov was speaking to Nick Coppack for FourFourTwo magazine.