Evans: I Won't Stop

Jonny Evans has, at the age of 25, accrued an impressive level of maturity, composure and consistency in his game, but he says the challenge at Manchester United is to never stop striving to improve.

The Northern Ireland international picked up an ankle knock in the Reds' pre-season friendly with AIK Fotboll in Sweden this week, but he will be hoping to be fit for the start of the 2013/14 campaign as United begin the defence of the Barclays Premier League trophy.

As well as being tuned in to United's team aims this term, Evans has personal ambitions of his own that he will be attempting to attain.

"Over time I've realised I must strive to be the best player I can be," he says in the latest issue of Inside United magazine, on sale now. "Every single game you have to be on top form - there's no room for blips."

The answer is to constantly assess and reassess performances, never allowing complacency to creep in. "Some people think you just turn up and play a match at the weekend and then forget about it," continues Jonny. "But it's not like that. You play a game on a Saturday and when you wake up the following morning, it's the first thing on your mind and it's like that for the rest of the week until you play your next game.

"That's the way it has to be at Manchester United: if you let your standards drop for a second, you get found out."

It's a testing, high-stakes environment, but Evans wouldn't have it any other way as he relishes the start of a new campaign and new challenges at Old Trafford.

Of his and the team's aims in 2013/14, Jonny says: "To win as many trophies as we can, that's always the aim here. At Manchester United you've got the opportunity of having a reward, or two or three, at the end of every season. That's a huge incentive for everyone.

"A couple of seasons ago we finished with no trophies and it wasn't a nice feeling at all, so I think getting that bit of silverware gives you some comfort. You want to go through a season and have a reward at the end of it."