Jesse Lingard captained a team largely made up of youth players on Thursday night as Manchester United took on FC Astana in the Europa League. He scored United’s only goal in a 2-1 defeat, his first in almost a year, during a period where he has largely been derided by the fan base.

Lingard had enjoyed good form during the 2017-18 season in the lead up to the World Cup, scoring a great goal for England during the tournament, but has gone off the boil since.

His presence on social media doesn’t help people’s perception of him but in an interview with The Mirror Lingard insists he works hard behind the scenes.

If you don’t really know me, a lot of of people judge me through social media and what they see. It’s a different perception of who I really am. I’m a humble guy, down-to-earth guy. People from the academy say good things about me. I work hard, I enjoy my football.

People see the messing about side, me on social media, but I still work behind the scenes. But I’m a fun guy. You get one life and you have to live it to the fullest. But only when the time’s right, of course. I do things that people don’t know I do. I have my own fitness guy who comes, I have my own chef because diet is big for me and my own masseuse who comes. I do stuff that doesn’t get filmed and aired out to the public.

Lingard has scored goals in two of the three trophy-winning finals we’ve played in since Sir Alex Ferguson retired but the trophy has dried up since 2017.

Everyone knows the values of Man United. We’ve always been a winning team, we love to win games and win trophies, and that’s the main thought in our heads: to win trophies. It’s so important. I remember lifting the FA Cup, the League Cup and Europa League and there’s no better feeling. The hunger is always there.

It’s so positive at United. If we can think positive all of the time then we’ll really do well. He (Solskjaer) knows the club inside out. He’d been there many years and to see him coming back was a special feeling.

We went on a run of 12 games unbeaten, the feeling was there, he understands the club, we knew how he wanted to play. We’ve made progress, he’s got us playing, we understand how he wants to play both attacking and defending but there’s still room for improvement but the lads want to learn.