Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke refusing to set any targets

Aston Villa striker Christian Beneteke today refused to set himself any goalscoring targets in his debut season in English football.

moreBenteke has found the net four times in 10 appearances for Villa since his £6m move from Genk, but does not want to put himself under pressure to hit a specific figure by the end of the campaign.

"I don't have a target in mind in terms of numbers of goals," said the 21-year-old who is set to feature in Belgium's friendly against Romania this evening.

"The most important thing for me is to get my head down and work as hard as I can. Then I can't reproach myself for not having done that. But to start setting targets would be putting myself under undue pressure.

"I was obviously hoping for success when I came here and I feel I've done well so far. I really feel at home. People have made such an effort to welcome me into the club and I already feel a part of it.

"I throw myself into everything I do. I believe that if you work hard you will reap the rewards.

"Technically, the standard here is much higher than in Belgium. It doesn't matter whether you are playing against one of the bigger teams, where all the players are well known, or one of the smaller clubs."

And the Belgium powerhouse admitted turning provider for his team-mates gives him just as much satisfaction as finding the net himself.

"I enjoy scoring but I also like setting up chances for other players," added Benteke.

"That sometimes makes me even happier than the player who scores because I take a lot of satisfaction from setting up goals."

Meanwhile, Villa have beaten off competition from Fulham and Hamburg to sign promising highly-rated 16-year-old Khalid Abdo from Swedish club Lärje Angereds IF.

"Back in September I found out that Villa wanted to recruit me. I'm happy, it feels good," said the Swedish teenager.

"I will play with the under-18 team but hope to move up to the reserves as soon as possible. I feel I can handle the pace here so I want to take the step from U18 to reserves within a year.

"Villa's young players often graduate to the first team. Their academy is the best of those I was with. I feel that I can best develop here."