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4-3-3 is better for me because I can score more goals, and also create more and tackle in midfield which I like to do to help the team.
I want to play football, and I want to help the team. It doesn't matter if I play midfield, if I play in defence, if I play as a striker.
I'm a centre forward, and that is my preferred position. But I'll play on the wing or in midfield, wherever the manager wants me to play.
I moved into midfield because I ruptured my Achilles tendon and couldn't run anymore - it's not what I wanted to do, it's what I had to do!
As a young player, I played up front, on the wing, in midfield, and when I started in the reserves at Standard Liege, I played centre back.
When you go to a World Cup, in midfield you need to have players who can score from distance, who can get in the box and obviously play-make.
Sometimes in midfield, it's nice because you do get a little bit more of the ball, and maybe out wide you rely on people to get you the ball.
I see myself as a mix between number six and number eight in central midfield - this is the best position for me, as a box-to-box midfielder.
The AZ captain Teun Koopmeiners, a left-footed centre back who can sit in midfield, is probably the best player in Holland in defensive areas.
In the defensive midfield position, the player needs to give balance to the team and try to control the game. That's exactly what I try to do.
As a full back, your role is just as much in playing in midfield, getting forward and creating chances, as it is stopping them at the other end.
One of the things that makes the best teams in the world the best is the fact that, across midfield and up top, they are capable of hurting you.
I have been lucky enough to work with great coaches. My father was also a coach, and my position in central midfield requires tactical knowledge.
Two wide men stuck out wide leave you very open in midfield, but it's a strength as well. Going forward, it makes you pretty dangerous to anyone.
When I played in the Benfica youth teams, they would always call me to play in midfield if someone was missing and I didn't ever embarrass myself.
I have been playing box-to-box more for Everton as a two, so I have felt comfortable in that position, but anywhere across the midfield I can play.
Real are really powerful in attack, really strong in defence, and have a balanced midfield. There's a reason they've won two Champions Leagues in a row.
In the academies, people develop differently, and going into that No 10 role helped me because central midfield was always packed with big, strong boys.
It's important to be a soccer player in the sense of the whole vision - if you put me at forward, I can do it, or if you put me in midfield, I can do it.
Normally when you look at the Ballon d'Or winners, they're either attacking midfield players or centre-forwards. They are goalscorers and eye-catching players.
Being in midfield, in general, you don't have a lot of time to think, and in the Premier League, that's even less of the case. You just don't have time to think.
I've said all along from day one centre-back is the position I feel most comfortable in but if I'm asked to play right-back or midfield I'll go and do a job there.
Beckham and Frank Lampard were the ones that I particularly liked watching, and with Lampard scoring so many goals from midfield it was hard not to look up to him.
I am actually comfortable in every position in midfield. At Bayern Munich, I even played as a winger and sometimes a full-back, so I can play many different positions.
Growing up I've been playing as an attacking midfielder, more central in the midfield. I wouldn't say if I'm most comfortable there but that's where I grew up playing.
I am a player who likes to play in between the lines and try to break that midfield line, whether it's when I receive a pass or can go and show everyone what I am about.
I know when I step into midfield I have to sharpen my feet up and be more aware of what's around me, at centre back it's more about timing, positioning and communication.
Even though I started out at right-back, I actually enjoy the contrast of playing both at full-back and in midfield. Both require physical attributes and a lot of energy.
Frank Lampard was always the player I tried to model myself on. The amount of goals he scored from midfield was incredible. On and off the pitch, he was what I wanted to be.
Ancelotti's teams are more balanced. It's a more Italian defense and creativity from the midfield forward. I admire his work and also his discreet profile. I am also like that.
If I don't get the service or if I don't the ball in the box, where I want it, I start drifting into midfield. I go and look for the ball. I try to be important for the team in other areas.
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.
When I was switching around in my early stages, people underestimated how difficult it was just to go from playing centre midfield to right-back to centre-back to right-back to centre midfield.
At Rennes, I played more down the left wing, but also down the right and sometimes in midfield. At Dortmund, it was the same: I alternated wings. I don't have problems with the position I'll take up.
It is everyone's dream to play for England and we have got a lot of top players in that midfield and lot of competition. For me to break in there, I have got to keep the form up for club at the top level.
You don't need only your strikers. You need your defenders to be on top of their game. You need a midfield to work hard and track back, and I suppose you need a goalkeeper who makes saves once in a while.
I find it interesting as every year people say the midfield is as tight as ever but it is always tight, it is always competitive. I've pretty much spent my entire career in the midfield so I know about it!
I just want to be able to be an attacking influence and have that effect further up the pitch; whether that's from an attacking midfield position or one of the wider positions coming in, I'm not too fussed.
Shinji Kagawa is one of the best players in the world, and he now plays 20 minutes at Manchester United - on the left wing! My heart breaks. Really, I have tears in my eyes. Central midfield is Shinji's best role.
I started in a 4-3-3 formation at Ajax, playing in left midfield. There, you need to be just as involved defensively as you are going forward. You attack and you defend, and that allows you to be a complete player.
Playing in midfield is a different ball game. You have to be on the half-turn all the time, have a different picture in your head of what is behind you and in front of you. Playing at right-back is different again.
I often felt as a player in a 4-4-2, you end up being outnumbered in midfield and chasing the ball, so as a manager I liked wingbacks to push forward; it gives the midfield player on the ball three or four options.
As a youngster as I was a centre-half, I liked being on the ball and coming out from the back. I took chances so I got put in midfield and then I was playing all over the pitch so adjusted wherever I needed to play.
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.
The manager might like it sometimes when I play up front because I can cause trouble for the defenders, but for me, my best position is defensive midfield, stopping the opposition, and then looking to impose myself on a game.
If you are playing on the left of a four-man midfield, there are a lot more defensive duties to do, so you can't find the times to keep attacking. But if you're on the left of a 4-3-3, I find that position really good as well.
For me, it's easier to play with my right foot. It's simple. If I go right, I see Diego and have different solutions: I go alone or pass to Diego, or the midfield can join in. If I go the other way, the cross with my left foot is not good.
Pirlo is a cool customer who does things in his own time. On the pitch, he just looks so relaxed, no matter what is going on around him. He is one of those greats who looks like he could run a midfield with a glass of red wine in one hand.
To be honest, from England Under-16s, through the 17s and 18s, really all the way through my youth career, I played at centre-half. For some reason, when I made my debut at Everton, I just played in central midfield, and it went from there.
For United, I'm more likely to be left wing of a four-man midfield with only two centre-mids, so it's a bit more difficult for me to maybe make those runs to get in and score those goals when I've got to think about my defensive duties as well.