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People get the impression that we approach football without method: that we're a bunch of skilled individualists. This just isn't so. I'm all for individuality. But I personally go through every tactical plan before every match.

You have different sorts of people in life, so why should it be any different in football?

Football is a sport of paradox. It requires reaction, not reflection. Yet you must use your mind to calculate, to anticipate - to think and not think at the same time.

What happens is once you start to understand football, you realise that it's not just about the physical side of the game and chasing after a ball. It's a strategic sport which requires a lot of intelligence. It's a very mental game.

The best thing about football for me is the reacting. It's a lot of instincts. But training, for me, it's more for the meditating. And I spend more time training than actually playing football. So I get into that zone during training more than anything.

The game of football is one of strategy and tactics.

To me, football is so much about mental toughness, it's digging deep, it's doing whatever you need to do to help a team win and that comes in a lot of shapes and forms.

In club football you have your players and staff with you all the time, preparing for two games a week, you know them inside out, you have a discipline over them.

Football brings you lots of lovely things, but then you have to realise that it's actually a job.