Jesse Lingard admits a flurry of goals is seeing him enjoy a career-best run of form at Manchester United.
The 25-year-old has rarely been considered a key man at Old Trafford, with his standing often leaving him on the fringes of the squad.
He has, however, made an important contribution down the years and is tied to a lucrative long-term contract.
Lingard has shown himself to be fully deserving of those terms of late, with a run of seven goals in nine games earning him widespread praise and United’s Player of the Month award for December.
Pressed by MUTV on whether he considers himself to be in the form of his life, the England international said: “Yes, of course, I think I’m now coming into the team and it’s a great group of lads.
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“It’s easy to play as a team with the performances we’ve been showing pretty much since last month. It’s good to keep working hard, pushing yourself and, by scoring goals, you get the reward.
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“Obviously, I’ve been in and around the team and playing a lot of matches so it’s been great to add some goals as well to my performances.
“It’s about more hard work now, though, I’ve got to kick on a bit more and score more goals to help the team keep picking up three points.”
Lingard has been handed just nine Premier League starts this season, but he has made 26 appearances in all competitions and is eager to see as much game time as possible.
He added: “Of course. I want to play every game, obviously. We recover well and do things that they ask of us in order to do recover.”
If Lingard is able to maintain the standards which have seen him record a new personal best of 10 goals to date, then he should have an integral role to play in the pursuit of more silverware.
A man who has a habit of netting at Wembley on the big stage for United added on the club’s ambition for 2018 campaign: “It’s always good to win a trophy in any season – unfortunately we are out of the Carabao Cup now but we can obviously focus on the FA Cup, plus we’ve got the league and the Champions League as well.”
