"I think we should be proud of it," he told Sky Sports.
"It's not easy away from Europe because we've been to some fantastic places over the years.
"We wanted a bit more of a surge through the middle rather than the wide positions. I felt that if we could get into these areas then the wide players could come into it at a later stage.
"I think it worked out quite well. Not exactly what you want because football's football at the end of the day.
"We had some good chances in the second half, we improved our goalscoring chances and we're pleased that Valencia's got an important goal for us."