I don't mind a bit of cricket, but it has to be something massive like the Ashes.
Jamie Carragher
Playing for England is a bonus, but playing for Liverpool is what I want to do.
When the tone needs to be set and the crowd need to be revved up, nothing is better than a big, shuddering tackle.
Learning to be a Liverpool player comes with experience.
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.
When I think of Xabi, my mind goes back to the first training session he had at Melwood in August 2004. And the same word always leaps out: wow! Rafa Benitez had talked him up before he arrived and immediately you understood.
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'm no different to other working class players.
It's been a privilege for me, really, to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world, an iconic club, an institution.
If you want trophies, they don't get given to you, you have to earn them, you have to play well in big games.
Compared to other clubs, what we've achieved under Gerard Houllier is exceptional.
The pressure from within used to have an impact on my behaviour. If games had gone badly, I would take things home with me. I'd be snappy at my kids and felt constantly wound up.
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.
Medals were - and always will be - the best thing to show your accomplishments in football.
We sometimes undervalue the importance of goalkeepers.
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.
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.
The buzz we had in 2000-01 was unique. We played 34 matches between January 1 and May 19, but lost only four.
I've played for Liverpool's first-team pretty much every week for 16 years.
In knockout football, it's one bad game and you're out.
Xabi embraced life in Liverpool.
I've never blown my own trumpet over my ability but it took an awful lot to stop me getting on the pitch.
Why does it get assumed that Zidane is a figurehead and everything Real achieve is down to the talent of the squad?
We want to play a full year, July to July, because that will mean we've been successful.
You can shape statistics to make them look however you want them to.
People make relegation out to be a fate worse than death but that's nonsense. If the infrastructure is right, clubs can bounce back.
We are constantly told to enjoy Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo before they retire but what about Arjen Robben?
Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso was always bemused by our enthusiasm for tackling, because he saw it as the last resort.
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.
Anger and bad experiences used to fuel my performances, but it was horribly draining.
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.
