ANDERS Lindegaard can see similarities between his new club and the Manchester United winning machine that he was so proud to have been a part of for four-and-a-half years.

Lindegaard joined Burnley on a deal until the end of the season in September and already he can see the ‘smaller scale’ winning mentality that drove United to so much glory under Sir Alex Ferguson.

The 33-year-old is yet to make his Clarets debut after making the move to Turf Moor following Tom Heaton’s shoulder injury, but he has forced his way onto the bench and he’s already been impressed with the culture at the club.

Asked how the environment at Burnley compared to that at United, Danish international Lindegaard said: “I want to say it’s kind of similar, which is probably difficult for people to understand, but it’s similar on a smaller scale.

“The players at United have world class quality and their mentality when I was there was fantastic, especially under Sir Alex Ferguson.

“Everybody was focused on the football and winning. You have the same sort of environment here, people are pushing each other, there’s a good atmosphere, but you don’t have the pressure that you have on every weekend, which makes a massive difference, and you sense that as well.”

He added: “At United we had a period where we drew three games in a row, it was my first six months at the club and we’d already pretty much won the league, but people started slaughtering each other in training because of frustration. I think we’d drawn against Chelsea and Arsenal or something like that.

“From my point of view, I was still green at a club like that, I didn’t understand it, but that’s the kind of pressure you work under at a club like that.

“You don’t have that at this club but you still want to create the atmosphere of it. I think the manager has been successful with that, the atmosphere here for something greater than just surviving in the Premier League is there.”

Lindegaard has done more than survive in the Premier League during his career, earning a winners’ medal in Ferguson’s last season in charge when he reached the 10 game mark.

But while he is proud of his achievements at Old Trafford, he doesn’t spend much time looking at the medal, instead focusing on the next chapter of his career with Burnley rather than looking back.

“I look back at my years with United with joy and happiness, I’m proud to have been a part of United. I was a United supporter when I was a kid,” he said.

“It’s a great club to have been a part of, once you’ve been a part of it I don’t think it ever really leaves you.

“I look back at it with pride, first and foremost, there was frustration as well with a couple of unlucky injuries at crucial times.

“I had one crucial point where I felt like I was established as the number one at the club, I was doing really well and felt very good, then I had an unlucky injury on my ankle that I didn’t really recover from. I got 10 games and I have a medal at home and my own small little trophy that we all got when we won it.

“It’s nice, it’s something to be proud of. It’s not something I think too much about though.”

Lindegaard was a free agent this summer after leaving Preston North End following an unhappy spell at Deepdale. Offers came in from around the world, but he was reluctant to leave his young family in Cheshire, so when Heaton suffered his dislocated shoulder against Crystal Palace one goalkeeper’s misfortune was another’s fortune.

“I had a lot of offers, I’ve had some very interesting and exotic offers. I had offers from Iran, Israel, Argentina, more conventional ones from Holland, Spain, France,” he said.

“I’m not going to lie and say it was dream offers, but there were some exotic ones and it could have been an adventure, but I have a son and we live in Cheshire and that was the main focus to stay where I was.

“Unfortunately Tom had his shoulder injury, but luckily for me it couldn’t have been much better, because the main focus was not moving away from Cheshire.”

Now Lindegaard is relishing his time at Turf Moor and he’s determined to put the pressure on Nick Pope for a start, but he admits the 25-year-old has been in fine form since replacing Heaton.

“Nick has been fantastic. I think I’m not hurting any feeling by saying he’s surprised everyone a little bit by how high a level he has kept,” Lindegaard said.

“I don’t see he’s had any glitches, he’s done very well, he’s been solid and helped the team to win games.

“There’s a good atmosphere in the goalkeepers union in Burnley, we all get along very well.

“There’s still that element of competition. I would love to play, that’s my objective, but I’m happy for Nick, he’s a nice guy and he’s done really well.”