It's always good to have players who can help us in attack.
Maybe modern tactics mean that making the switch from defence to midfield is easier. Many years ago, full backs were more limited - you were just supposed to defend, and it didn't matter if you could get forward too.
Rafa Benitez was keen on defending - all dropping back together if you lose the ball.
My teams have always been dominant about having the ball but having the ball to create opportunities. That's always been the clear way of my work.
Anytime you get good service to the box, it's always great as an attacking player because it gives you more opportunities to score.
Sometimes it is difficult to play against teams who just drop back and try to defend.
You pressure, you want possession, you want to attack. Some teams can't or don't pass the ball. What are you playing for? What's the point? That's not football. Combine, pass, play. That's football - for me, at least.
At Tottenham, I'm asked to take a lot of risks to keep maximum possession of the ball and build from the back.
Guardiola has a way of playing; he has a system, and he sticks to that.
I like to be in contact with the ball, have possession, to play.
Little things that I've emphasized are turning in pockets and looking to penetrate and finding these spaces and playing at a good tempo when we're in the middle third.
In the last 15 to 20 years the best central midfielder that I have seen — the most complete — is Scholes. I have spoken with Xabi Alonso about this many times. Scholes is a spectacular player who has everything. He can play the final pass, he can score, he is strong, he never gets knocked off the ball and he doesn’t give possession away. If he had been Spanish then maybe he would have been valued more.
There's a famous saying: "If you pass the square ball in your own defensive third it must not be intercepted."
My focus in the training sessions is always about movement to create openings and opportunities. When you don't have the ball, you still need the discipline to know where you should be, who you should be marking, but when we have the ball, it is important to be able to move around.
At international level, giving the ball away doesn't work too often.
Maybe other managers would see their team score one goal and then prefer to go back and counter-attack, then try to score the second goal. A lot of those managers are the best managers at the moment, but for me, it's very important to continue the way I play.
What Liverpool do really well is they try to get you inside but then close you down.
Centre-backs with good technique can move the ball forward, even when under pressure.
I need to play smarter and protect the football.
It is an important part of the role of a centre-back to focus on building up the game and initiating moves.
If you play every time, long balls, you lose possession and you lose momentum. I don't want to be like that.
I prefer getting a lot of the ball.
In short, with Sarri football is maths.
The way we play at Liverpool is with high-intensity football, pressing high up the pitch, winning the ball back quickly, and counter-pressing.
Always, even with the U17s in Spain, U19s, we play from the back, and we try to improve on that a lot. So I always enjoy having the ball at my feet.
