Lindelof Loving Life In Manchester

Victor Lindelof claimed a Man-of-the-Match award on Saturday and helped keep a clean sheet as Manchester United ran out 1-0 winners over Brighton, and the defender says he is feeling more and more comfortable every day.

The Swede is loving life as a Red since making the summer move from Benfica and is confident he's making good progress.

Before the match with Brighton, Lindelof sat down with United Review to discuss his time at the club so far, the return of Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marcos Rojo, and why everyone is relishing the busy festive period...

Our home form has been outstanding this season hasn’t it and we set a new record after the win over Newcastle…
It gives us a lot of confidence when we play at Old Trafford and I think we have to keep that going and keep performing the way we have been doing. It’s our home and we have our fans behind us and that gives us a lot of strength.

There were some very big positives on top of the result against Newcastle with the return to the squad of Pogba, Ibra and Rojo – how much of a boost has that been for everyone?
They’re very good players and very important for us so it’s great to have them back. Paul started the game and showed his qualities right away. Zlatan came on with about 15 minutes left and he’s a fantastic player and very important as well for the team, both on the pitch and off it. They give us a lot of strength and it’s great to have all three of them back.

What quality of Paul's do you most admire?
It’s hard to pick one thing, he’s just a fantastic player and also such a nice guy. When he has the ball, the vision he shows and the things he can do with the ball are brilliant. It’s very important to have a player like that in the midfield who can create things from nowhere.

His goal celebration went down well. Is he the best dancer in the team?!
I think so! I think we have a few good dancers, but he’s one of the best! [Smiles]

Your fellow countryman Zlatan received a tremendous ovation when he made his return against Newcastle – how big is his presence in the dressing room as well as on the pitch?
He’s a very important player and has been at the top, top level for a very long time and has a lot of experience. You can learn a lot from him. When he speaks you listen and you try to learn as much as possible. The way he has come back from his injury has been incredible to watch and I’m very happy for him.

Does it help you personally having a fellow Swede in the dressing room?
It’s always nice to have a friend from Sweden and it’s great to have Zlatan here for me. I played a little bit with him for the national team but it’s different here because we see each other every day. He’s a very nice guy and he helps me a lot.

How do you feel you’ve settled in at the club?
It feels good. Every day that goes by I feel more and more comfortable here and I’m enjoying the city and meeting the people here too. Everyone around the club is very nice and my team-mates have been great. I really feel like I am getting to know the place better and better every day.

What have been the biggest changes to playing for Benfica?
Obviously, the league here is much tougher than Portugal. Over there, you have good teams but you have the top teams that are always the favourites in every game and winning almost every game. Here, it’s much more difficult and you have tough games every week – that’s the biggest the change, the competitiveness you have in the league.

The manager always speaks in a complimentary way about you - does that give you extra confidence?
Yes, it does and I like him a lot. He’s a very good coach, in my opinion, the best in the world and, for me to be able to work with him, is a pleasure. All of the staff and coaches as well, they are great and I am learning a lot from them. I’m just trying to do my best to work hard every day and listen to them because they know a lot about football, so it’s about listening and learning.

Zlatan's return adds to a pretty frightening forward line - how good are our attacking options and how enjoyable is it to sit behind them and watch them go?
They are world class. The things they can do with the ball and the speed and strength they have… it’s a joy to watch. We have fantastic players and it must be tough for the manager to pick a team because we have a very good squad and now with the players coming back from injury there is a really good depth to the squad. That’s really important now as we have a lot of games coming up.

We’re eight points behind City but there is still so long to go. Are you confident we can close the gap and continue to challenge for the title?
There are a lot of good teams in the league and we’re very confident we can do well. We just have to keep working hard every day and during the games we have to be really focused and do the things we know we can do.

Finally, there are so many matches coming up in the next few weeks, are you looking forward to showing what you can do and where the team can go?
Yes. The games are the most fun part of football. Training is fun also, but you play football to play the games, that’s the best part of it. We have a lot of games coming up and we have to be focused on the recovery between games so that the body can be 100 per cent ready. As I said before, we have a very good squad with a lot of depth and good players. We’ve made a good start in every competition, now we just want to keep on going and do our best.