I don't mind a bit of cricket, but it has to be something massive like the Ashes.

You can shape statistics to make them look however you want them to.

It's been a privilege for me, really, to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world, an iconic club, an institution.

Anger and bad experiences used to fuel my performances, but it was horribly draining.

We are constantly told to enjoy Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo before they retire but what about Arjen Robben?

Would I - or any defender - tell the referee to give a penalty if I made a foul in the box but it was deemed a fair tackle? No chance.

Learning to be a Liverpool player comes with experience.

People make relegation out to be a fate worse than death but that's nonsense. If the infrastructure is right, clubs can bounce back.

I think with my generation, your first game of senior football was often a Sunday League game of football. Sometimes you're playing on pitches that aren't great, you've no referee, you've no goal nets.

I've been in the position where Liverpool needed to win on the last day to reach the Champions League. In May 2000, we needed to beat Bradford, who were fighting to avoid relegation, at Valley Parade but lost an awful game 1-0.

If you want trophies, they don't get given to you, you have to earn them, you have to play well in big games.

We talk about the Arsenal 'Invincibles' of 2004 and the team who won the Double two years earlier and drool over their attacking play. It is easy to forget, though, that virtually the same squad had won nothing for three years.

In the modern era, with the rewards the top players have during their career and the risks involved moving into management, more will look at it and say they don't need it.

Playing for England is a bonus, but playing for Liverpool is what I want to do.

I want to be a manager, it wouldn't scare me, but I also think you could be sacked in six months and you'd have to take the kids back to school with your tail between your legs.

In knockout football, it's one bad game and you're out.

Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso was always bemused by our enthusiasm for tackling, because he saw it as the last resort.

I was an Evertonian as a kid, but I've never hated Man United. I've always had respect for them.

For the life of me, I'll never understand why the teams that have the best defences get criticised. Shouldn't clean sheets be a badge of honour for defenders and goalkeepers?

I've seen plenty of young lads elevated into the senior squad acting like they have made it.

Has there ever been a Premier League star splitting opinion more than Mesut Ozil?

The top coaches want wide strikers who cut inside. They want playmaking midfielders who can play between the lines as well as perform their defensive duties.

The reason Ozil has as many detractors as supporters is he is a bit of an anomaly - an elegant, skilful footballer who at his best evokes memories of the great number 10s from the past, but sometimes looks unsuited to the extra demands of a changing game at the very top.

We have all come to agree the modern players cannot be one-trick ponies, and we are especially critical of those who do not consistently produce in the biggest games.

There's one thing I've never seen in a paper. Jamie Carragher linked with this or that club.

It's all about winning trophies really.

If I'm reading a book by a footballer I don't want to read about games, how he scored or played well. People want to read what you thought, not what happened.

Robben is truly world class, proving himself at the highest level in England, Spain, Germany and on the international stage.

Without Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, we would discuss Robben more often and with more appreciation.

When Robben joined Chelsea in 2004 nobody realised how good he was. He was seen as an excellent player rather than a world-class one, and he suffered a lot with injuries. In the years since, he has elevated his game.

I always thought just because I love football, it doesn't necessarily mean I'm desperate to manage.

If you'd asked me at the start of my career I would have said I was going to be a manager. I may still be in future, but there seemed to be an expectation it was a natural progression for me.

The two managers I worked under longest are Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez. I have so much respect for the two of them.

Arsene Wenger is a legend in the English game.

Nobody in football wants to receive sympathy.

Managers can make themselves look strong by selling or dropping players, but if the move doesn't work, the choice looks flawed.

In the past, you would have been classed as a sweeper if you were put in the middle of a three-man defence.

People go on about how much players earn in the Premier League but once you've bought a nice house and car, what else is there to spend it on?

There is pressure, and I would never complain about that, but as players we put pressure on ourselves all the time. That's one thing I won't miss when I finally stop playing.

I like Tony Blair.

I always think when you're in the Champions League, as a player, as a fan now, you're in that to come up against the biggest teams and the biggest names - that's what you want.

I'm no different to other working class players.

As one of the lucky ones who could provide for my family, I also wanted to help those from my area.

For a 20-year-old kid to be taking on Liverpool Football Club over a contract. To the pit of my stomach that just winds me up, it angers me.

Well, when I wasn't playing with a football I used to play with 'Star Wars' figures as a kid. Hanging out with Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker is how I passed the time when I wasn't kicking a ball around.

I'm not massively into the screamers, because I think sometimes fellas just hit it and there's an element of luck over whether it flies into the top corner or over the bar.

Players like people saying good things about them and, of course, no one is ever wrong when they do that, but they always are when they say bad stuff.

I've played for Liverpool's first-team pretty much every week for 16 years.

At the end of a career you're desperate more than ever for medals, grabbing as much as you can as you go.

Centre-back is my best position. I think everyone is aware of that.