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.

Every manager has his own ideas and different ways of doing things.

I understand that we're paid a lot of money and we're in the limelight. When things don't go well, there's deserved criticism.

Everyone's different with different ways of doing things.

We take the plaudits when things are going well so you have to take the criticism when it's not going well.

We're only human and when things aren't going well the confidence does go a little bit.

The only way the confidence comes back is by winning games. You grind out a few results and hopefully with each game you get more confident.

Liverpool has always had speculation about managers, players, players coming, players going and it's the same as managers. That's part of being part of a big club, you always have that type of thing.

People always want to talk about the club, whether it is positively or negatively, and if you play for Liverpool you have got to get used to that as part of the job.

You talk about results being more important than performances but, ideally, you want to put the two together.

Normally in the past whenever Everton have beaten Liverpool, the accusation was that they wanted it a little bit more.

The crowd, especially at Anfield, want us to win so much that it transmits itself down on to the pitch at times.

Don't get me wrong, the fans are great for us. But the fans, and the players, all of us together have to realise we have to be patient.

We want to play a full year, July to July, because that will mean we've been successful.

The captain at international level has to be someone who is one of the first names on the team sheet, someone who has the respect of the other players and someone who has good leadership qualities.

I'm always trying to improve.

Centre-back takes more out of you mentally than physically.

Not playing for Liverpool would hurt me more than not playing for England.

Managers are never appreciated when they're in the job.

Compared to other clubs, what we've achieved under Gerard Houllier is exceptional.

In some ways, trying to win cups is more fraught than trying to win the league, as one really bad night and everything comes crashing down.