Joe Gomez Quotes

Kids are learning to play. That's why we're seeing an emergence. That's why we're seeing the Under-17s and Under-20s doing better in international football.

I will have to play as a goalkeeper and sometimes like a centre-back and play with my feet. I like that system and I feel comfortable in it.

I've played soccer since I was five.

I think where we're still a little bit behind some other countries is just our pure soccer knowledge and our savvy on the field. That takes time and generations that have watched soccer growing up, played the game growing up.

The best managers out there at the moment are Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho but they are at other clubs - Real Madrid and Barcelona.

I played soccer when I was a kid. I started when I was 8 and played for 8 more years. I was pretty good. I used to train with Atletico Nacional, which is one of the most important teams in Colombia. I used to train every day.

The quality of our academy system is very high, as good as anything in the world. Around the country, lots of people in youth development are keen to get together and find a solution to that 17-to-21 age bracket and how we get those players playing.

I like to play wide, but as a youth, I played more in the middle as a 10.

Playing soccer is what I've done and known all my life, starting at such a young age with my friends.

I think that Thomas Tuchel has the quality to train a Bayern.

I'm always learning, especially with the different formations. It will help me in the long run to maybe become a forward player - on the wing or something.

Once I reached about 14 or 15, I started to steady myself and get into a midfield role and carried that on until I was 17. Then I dropped into right-back, and I have played there ever since.

Before, sometimes if the ball was played over my head I wouldn't know where I was but now I feel a lot more comfortable. Sometimes I would be going forward when it really wasn't the right time to go too, but now I'm picking my moments better.

At Under-11/12, I was playing as a right-back. The manager then was Cyril Helstone, and he said to me, 'No, you're not a defender. You should be in midfield.' That was the big change in my career because from that moment until I made my debut in the first-team at Feyenoord, that was the position I played.

I am very proud of being Brazilian, but I am also thankful for having the chance to play in Germany for four and a half years. I have completely changed the way I play football because Germany is a tougher, faster game which is more tactical with tighter marking.

My dad had a soccer school that he used to run, the Mark Chamberlain Soccer Academy, I used to go to that for two years until the age of seven.

You can put the players on the pitch but they always move and systems change. I think, though, that Messi has to be a special case and that the other nine outfield players should support him. But one player on his own is not going to win you the World Cup.

I would be very surprised if Phil Neville didn't go into management and possibly Johnny Heitinga, too.

I played for Barcelona, for Ajax, where it's important to develop and integrate young talent.

Few footballers at 20 or 21 are the finished article.

I have evolved a lot as a player working with Klopp, who is a very tactical coach.

At seven, I played centre-back. When you're so young, though, it's more to enjoy the training and to get a feel for the game. It's not heavy on tactics of a position. We were playing on a half pitch, seven against seven or eight against eight, so they say you're a centre-back, but it's not like the real definition.

I came from Ajax where you play 4-3-3 and as a winger they didn't want you to defend.

It was lucky I came from City; I'd say their philosophy is quite similar. Barcelona are a lot more advanced because they are the ones who created it, but they have a history of members of staff at Manchester City who worked here.

I started going training with Southampton, and they were selecting the team for the under-9s. I did a six-week trial and got in. I was quite lucky to play at a good standard from a very young age.