Valencia boss Gary Neville has backed Alvaro Negredo to regain his best form for Los Che in the second half of the season.

Negredo, 30, has had a stop-start campaign to date due to injury and a fall-out with former Los Che boss Nuno, which has seen him miss a lot of football over the last couple of months.

The Spanish international, who joined Valencia from Manchester City in the summer transfer window, is back in favour under Neville, however, and the Englishman has thrown his support behind the powerful forward.

"I'm convinced that we can get [Alvaro] Negredo back to his best. All strikers need confidence, but he hadn't played for three months. We've seen enormous progress from him, but we won't rush him. I don't want to take risks," Neville told Marca.

Negredo has recently been linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur.