Football
9y

Alvaro Negredo feeling confident again after Manchester City struggles

On-loan Valencia striker Alvaro Negredo has told AS he is happy to feel like a footballer again, having suffered after losing the confidence of Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini last season.

Negredo, 29, started the 2013-14 campaign in flying form for City, moving up to 23 goals in all competitions for the club when scoring twice in a Capital One Cup win at West Ham in January.

However, things changed for the ex-Sevilla man after he played in the Premier League game against Chelsea in February despite not being 100 percent fit, before falling rapidly out of favour during the latter part of the season, with Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko preferred by Pellegrini up front.

That led to a surprise loan move to Valencia in the summer and Negredo -- who has only recently returned to full fitness and made his debut for the Spanish club -- says that losing the support of Pellegrini had been hard to take considering he had played for the Chilean while injured.

"The experience was very good. I love City as a club, but from January the coach no longer counted on me," Negredo said. "I had a shoulder injury, and went to a clinic for rugby players to get a special bandage. But because 'Kun' [Aguero] had been injured in the previous game against Tottenham, the boss [Pellegrini] asked me to force it.

"I did not feel comfortable, the pain was unbearable, but I did it. Then Dzeko began to play and when I was fully recovered, I never found the confidence of the start of the season."

While Negredo has not scored since January, he says the most important thing at the moment is to be back out on the pitch playing.

"I know a goal will come sooner or later, I am not obsessing about it," he said. "I needed to feel like a footballer again after being out for months. And now I can see the light again."

The former Real Madrid player said he hoped to get his first goal for Valencia in Sunday's Liga game at home to Barcelona, but not due to having anything against the Catalan club personally.

"I do not feel 'anti-Cule' for having been at Real Madrid," Negredo said. "I am just a forward, I live for goals. So I want to score against Barcelona the same as against Levante or any other team."

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