Valencia Unmoved By Plaudits

Antonio Valencia says he is grateful to receive praise from fans and the media but insists he's more interested in helping United win the title this season.

After a four-week spell on the sidelines, Valencia made a triumphant return to action during the Reds’ 5-0 win over Wolves, earning rave reviews for a display that yielded one goal and two assists.

Such was his performance, the Ecuadorian was the clear winner in ManUtd.com’s Man of the Match poll for the Molineux mauling, recording a landslide victory with a whopping 74% of all votes cast.Yet Valencia is keen to play down talk of his best performance in red.

“I don’t look at my individual performances like that,” Antonio told MUTV. “I try and strive for continuous improvement and I am always looking to improve from one game to the next. I think I’ve had plenty of other decent performances for the club, sure.

“If it’s a case of analysing stuff, it’s really down to the manager and the backroom staff to give their opinions on that. It’s just down to me to keep working hard and improving.

“It does make you happy when you hear positive things in the media and from the fans. All you can do, at that point, is be grateful and thank people for that. I suppose it does encourage you to fight even harder to work towards that goal and that goal is obviously to win trophies.

“I’m very happy to be back. I managed to get 90 minutes under my belt against Wolves. It felt good all the way through and it’s good to be playing now until the end of the season, hopefully.”

So far, Valencia has scored five goals in 29 appearances this season, clocking up an incredible 13 assists in the process. What’s more impressive is that 12 of those set-ups were provided in December or the months beyond – when the big players really come to the fore.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the former Wigan Athletic winger says he prefers to supply the ammunition over pulling the trigger, though he does admit that his famously stern expression might pave way for a more elaborate celebration, should he ever bag his first United hat-trick or more.

“I get really pleased and full of emotion when I score. But, to be totally truthful, I prefer playing the perfect pass for someone else to score a goal. I like that, it’s a good feeling. I think maybe I’ve got to leave it until I get to three or four goals and then smile more. What I really need to do is learn some kind of dance routine or something!”