My dad shaped the footballing side of me, and Mum shaped me as a person. I've always been very close to her - we've only ever had one argument, and that was over something stupid when I was 13.

If I could have been anyone in the world, it would have been Ronaldinho. He's fantastic, I love watching him.

I'm not silly. I understand that, with age and at different parts of your career, you have different challenges.

I'm a very private person, and you have a lot of people looking into your personal life, away from football. That's the one thing that I don't like, but I always remember how lucky we are that we're playing football.

Obviously, it has taken time to work with the players around me and with so many new faces coming in the summer, in a way it's been more difficult.

The advantage does lie with us because we're at home and if we can't motivate ourselves for this match then we can't motivate ourselves for any match. I think the crowd will be up for it as well.

In a way, I've thrived on the competition, perhaps it has made a better player because of it.