Manchester United loanee Jesse Lingard has stated that this season he was not provided with any chance to prove himself at Old Trafford.
In the early days of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s time at the club, Lingard was a regular but eventually started to slip down the pecking order.
Lingard did not play at all this time around, finally being allowed to leave West Ham on loan in January. He managed just 41 Premier League minutes after last year’s lockdown.
He hit the ground running under David Moyes, bagging two goals on his debut and winning a penalty in Monday’s 3-0 victory over Sheffield United, before which Lingard just spurred him on further before claiming his time on the fringes at United.
“During the lockdown I recapped my best moments playing football – the season under Jose (Mourinho) where I scored all of those goals and went to the World Cup and the season when Ole came in and I started well,” he told BT Sport.
“So I started recapping a lot of games to see where I did well, getting that fire in my belly and drive again to go and kick on because it would have been easy for me to fall off and take the easy option out. But a person like me who’s been through a lot and knows the game, I can’t just give it up and I’ll always go out with a fight.”
“I came back one of the strongest and fittest after the lockdown and I didn’t get my chance that I was waiting on, but the whole time I was there and not playing I was doing extra training and keeping on top of my fitness for when the time was right. So for me it’s about working hard and staying dedicated and I went back to basics.”
