Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
There isn't really anyone I modelled myself on.
I definitely played on a lot of muddy northern pitches.
People do focus on the transfer fee, but that's football.
I've enjoyed the challenges of playing in the biggest games.
I've never hidden away from mistakes or the good things as well.
Fifty points at home and 50 points away is unheard of as a team and I'd love to keep improving.
It is always good to self-analyse and be self-critical. That is how I've got through so far and improved.
What matters is how I feel and if the manager is happy and my family are happy - that circle are who I should listen to.
I was such a big football fan in general, I just watched as many games as I could and I picked up things from every game.
But you grow more knowledgeable during the time you play in the Premier League. Every new manager, new chapter, has been a learning curve.
You've got to be harsh on yourself because it is the only way you are going to get better by studying those situations where you may have fallen short.
I'm a big enough lad now to know that I should just get over it and do what I have to do, by getting out on the training pitch and correcting the faults.
As a kid I played in tournaments and my team won trophies but in my professional career I've not won anything yet. I'm hungry to get a medal around my neck.
I'm a defender first and foremost - blocks, headers, vital tackles, or even just the communication side of it, which is massive but doesn't really get recognised.
As a player you get scrutinised and rightly so, sometimes it's what comes with a move that I've made. I've just got to take that on the chin and concentrate on me.
I know and the manager knows my best position is centre-half but if I can learn two other positions if needed then it's great for me as a player and my development.
It's nice to be settled and enjoying my football, the new experience, playing in the Champions League and all the things you dream about when you start playing football.
Everyone's disappointed when they don't feel like they play well or they make a mistake. I'm the first one to hold my hand up and try and rectify that in training or the next game.
Everyone finds their little ways of getting past bad moments and everyone has them, it's football. We get the good moments and we get stick. You can start overthinking, it's human, everyone does it.
It's not me being rude or disrespectful but as I've got older I've realised I can question people or ask why. Maybe in the past I've been scared to ask them or scared of the reaction of what I would get back.
From my youth team all the way through, I was encouraged to play that way by Keith Hill when I was at Barnsley, and then Roberto Martinez at Everton, through to Gareth Southgate when he was in charge of the England Under-21s.
Every player usually watches their clips back of how they play: mistakes, duels, things that are specific for your game. I wanted to be proud of that and I wanted to see it in person, I suppose, because in the past I have had a lot of criticism for things that I have done.
I've had some nice messages after games from players who I haven't spoken to before. I won't name people and drop them in it, but I've had messages from opposition strikers and defenders saying that they respect and love the way I play, telling me to keep doing it and not to change the way I am.
I've always liked taking the ball out of defence and I will carry on doing that but at the end of the day I'm a defender, and that's what I want to be known as - a defender, getting in the blocks and the headers that people don't recognise I do, the dirty stuff that every defender should do and should be good at.