I just don't like losing, I don't like losing, full stop. Even if it's at FIFA.
Raheem Sterling
I try to get better in every aspect of my life, not just on the football field. I am competitive, and I just want to always get better.
I don't think I'm the most confident person, but I have people around me who, while they don't say I am the greatest thing in football, have a general belief in me.
I am always analysing myself; I am always critical of myself and always trying to improve.
I don't want to be the one that says Liverpool can go on and win the league. But there's a real belief and togetherness in the squad; we're all working for each other. We all know what the dream is at the end of it.
I am not saying I don't think I'm good, but I'm not the type of player to have an ego or big myself up.
As a young boy - I was 20-21, around that age - I didn't think I was being treated right. It can affect anyone, not just me. It was about how I bounced back, how I had to think and sit down and try to move on. Not let that defeat me.
Performing for my dad does drive me on. Especially in big games, massive games.
My mum was working as a cleaner at some hotels to make extra money so she could pay for her degree. I'll never forget waking up at five in the morning before school and helping her clean the toilets at the hotel in Stonebridge.
It's something I've always wanted to do: wear the number 10 for England.
I remember being coached at Liverpool, and there was another kid called Toni Silva, and they said, 'You know, instead of blasting the ball, and it goes in, do like Toni does: pass it around the keeper.'
That's the one thing I don't like hearing, when someone says, 'We'll see what happens, see what happens here, see what happens there.' Forget all of that.
I don't want to be perceived as the money-grabbing 20-year-old; I just want to be perceived as the kid who loves to play football.
I've got a massive opportunity here with a great bunch of players to represent England at a World Cup; that's my biggest focus now.
It's always an honor to put on an England shirt, but this one is different - it makes you really feel fast; plus, it's light and fits nicely.
I had a rough year, my first year at Man City, a big club for a big transfer fee. There was a lot of talk, a lot of pressure, and I didn't think I was being spoken about in a fair manner.
I've come to a point in my career where it doesn't matter if I dribble or nutmeg someone. The only thing that matters is whether I was decisive, did I put the ball in the back of the net today, and did it help the team win.
I grew up five minutes from the stadium and watched it being built. I'd play football right outside and look up at this huge stadium with all the cranes and building work and think, 'One day, when it's finished, I need to be playing in here.'
I'm still short now, but when I was 14, I was like a pencil. You had to be aggressive and hold your own.
My mum thinks she knows her football. She'll certainly tell me when I'm not doing something right. At other times, she'll say I'm not listening to her. There's been a few clashes with her.
I just want to be seen as a kid who loves to play football and to do the best for the team.
I've just got face: he looks like a brat. The 'I don't like face.' That's how I see it. And I'm not a brat. Sometimes I'm watching a movie, and you see a character and go, 'I don't like him' - that's me.
I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well and score more, and it will be a matter of time. Once you get back into that rhythm, you will start getting balls that drop to you in positions where it wasn't before. I do have that feeling that it is going to come soon.
If you don't score, what happens? You sulk on the bus the whole way back.
Growing up, you watch players like Ronaldinho playing in World Cups, doing the business, and you idolise these people.
England is still a place where a naughty boy who comes from nothing can live his dream.
It's never been about money. I talk about winning trophies throughout my career. That's all I talk about.
I was looking at the sights, thinking, 'I used to play there a couple of years back, and now I'm on the coach with the England team.'
If people want to write about my mum's bathroom in her house, all I have to tell you is that 15 years ago, we were cleaning toilets in Stonebridge and getting breakfast out of the vending machine. If anybody deserves to be happy, it's my mum.
If you grew up the same way I grew up, don't listen to what certain tabloids want to tell you. They just want to steal your joy. They just want to pull you down.
There's a perception in certain parts of the media that I love 'bling.' I love diamonds. I love to show off. I really don't understand where that comes from.
When the time is right I have a laugh and a joke with my friends on a day off, but I have had to make sacrifices, and in that sense it's been a huge step forward, completely different to how it was before. I was 18 when the manager spoke to me. I realised I'm not like any other teenager. I can't be doing stuff any other 18 or 19-year-old was doing.
A better goals-to-game ratio is the aim for me now. If you score goals, you will get people talking about you.
I just want to take the time to think about what I've achieved in my career so far, where I need to go, and what I need to do to get better as a player.
I'm trying to make the box, trying to be more ruthless, more clinical, and trying to decide games.
Obviously, it's disappointing when you put on a shirt and get negative feedback, but at the same time, it's what the fans want to see; they want to see you perform well.
Sometimes you can get sloppy and control the ball right at your feet, and that gives the defenders a chance.
I've got that face. You know when you see someone on TV and go, 'I don't like him?' Some people have that face, and I've got it. I can't do anything about it.
Goals can help lift me to be one of the best two or three in the world, most definitely. You score the goal that wins the football match five, six, seven times a season: you are one of the best in the world. And that's what I need to do. I need to keep being consistent.
I don't talk about how many cars I'm going to drive, how many houses I've got. I just purely want to be the best I can be.
A few years ago, I would let it get to me. But now, as long as my mum and my sister and my kids don't have any stress, I'm good.
One of my friends, Bruno Andrade, was so quick, he just used to knock the ball past whoever he was playing against, and I thought, 'Why can't I do that?' Until then, I would try to dribble and maybe try a stepover, but Andre would just knock it then - beep, beep - and he was so fast, he would get there first.
Something good happens or something bad, I think, 'What can I do better? What didn't I do this year?'
I've learned how to deal with pressure more. I'm still trying to achieve more in my game and add more to it. I feel like I'm still learning every day, and I want to keep on improving.
I'm sorry to say it, but we have to be more arrogant and more streetwise because we are coming up against some great teams who have that streetwise mentality. They bring their play into it: you do what you have to do to win a game. Simple as that. Be streetwise and clever.
A quarter-final won't be good enough at all, because we want to win it.
Every player wants to win the World Cup - every country wants to win the World Cup - so anything less than that is not really a bonus. Of course you can take positives out of everything, but you won't be entirely happy if you don't win it.
Footballers need to be aware kids look up to them.
Some things that started in pre-season and then, you know what, the season gets started, you kind of forget about it and then move on to football, and it's strictly football until the season finishes.
For a few years, we lived with our grandmother in Kingston, and I remember watching the other kids with their mums and just feeling really jealous. I didn't fully understand what my mum was doing for us. I just knew that she was gone. My grandma was amazing, but everybody wants their mum at that age.
