I'm Jordan Henderson, Liverpool midfielder, and England midfielder.
Yeah, intensity is a big part of our game, to make sure that the intensity is high,
right from the first whistle up until the last whistle.
You've got to obviously be fit to do that,
and we've got a fit squad of players with the training intensity,
and how we train pre-season and obviously during the season is quite different,
from probably other teams.
So, yeah, that comes into it,
but that plays a massive part in the way we want to play, with high press
and winning the ball back high up the pitch.
Yeah, I think definitely.
The competitive nature is always in us, to want to win as a team,
but individually, when we're doing stuff in training as well,
there's a big part of that.
Obviously just to get us ready for the session ahead and make sure we're focused
and ready to go, because once we're in the session,
the manager demands 100% all the time, physically and mentally.
I think if I look back at my career so far...
Well, I would say injury is a big part of that.
You know, injury is the hardest thing for an athlete to deal with.
I feel as though, for me personally, it certainly is.
I think you sort of lose... your identity as a person.
You can't do what you want to do, and what you feel you're good at,
you can't help your teammates.
You feel a bit isolated and can't really affect anything, so that's really tough.
And I've struggled with injuries in the past, to deal with them.
But somehow you find a way.
You get through with the support of your teammates and your family around you,
and then when you come out the other side,
you're stronger for it and learn a lot of lessons on the journey.
So I would say injury is a...
One big, big thing - or the biggest thing,
certainly for me in the past.
And obviously if I look back at my career,
I would say, when I was like 20, 21,
coming to a huge club like Liverpool,
it's just dealing with that pressure that I wasn't used to,
criticism and all of that sort of stuff.
It was a difficult time looking back, but again,
because you experience it and you find a way,
you become stronger for it in the end.
I've always been like that, I've always felt that,
even when I was a young player coming through, I always was professional.
I always like to do things properly, you know, like to dedicate my life to football,
I'll make sure every little thing I do properly,
to give me the best chance of becoming a footballer,
being the best possible player I can be,
improving all the time and being able to perform at the highest level.
You need to do things differently, and you're going to have so many people that
are so talented in football, I've seen so many good players,
but they just maybe didn't have that right mentality or attitude
and don't end up going on to make it, or fade away.
So, yeah, for me, it was about doing things differently.
And it still is now, just trying to...
Little games all the time, one/two percent-ers, to stay on top.
Recovery is huge.
I'm always trying to improve and make sure that
my body is in the best place it can be for the next game.
Eating the right things, gym work...
It's 24/7, really.
It's not one of them where people think maybe as a footballer
you come into training in the morning and then by one or two o'clock, you're finished
and you go home and that's it.
But for me, 24/7, constantly around the clock,
I'm always thinking about how I can be ready for the next day and the next challenge
Games are coming thick and fast two, three days later,
so the first 24 hours is key.
And then eating the right things straight after the game, within the first hour or so.
Sleep is important - huge for me.
Sleep is really important, and being able to monitor that,
which I've got, with that ring there.
But, yeah, monitoring my sleep to make sure that I'm sleeping well,
and things that I can change to make sure I'm getting optimal sleep,
because that's the biggest thing for recovery.
I mean, you can do all the things - ice bath, pool, massage, which helps -
but for me, sleep is so important.
And if you can get that then recovery can be so much quicker.
Gazza.
Yeah, I'd probably go Gazza,
just because I think obviously I've watched games when I was really young.
I've seen a lot of stuff on YouTube and things like that,
but also how people talk about him.
I think it's just being able to get around.
As a midfielder, being able to get around and cover the grass
and cover the pitch well, quickly.
And being able to do it for 90 minutes.
The stamina element, but also that power -
to be powerful, to get to the ball, to press, to counter-press, to win the ball back.
Being able to do that consistently for 90 minutes...
I think is a key thing for a midfielder.
When I came to Liverpool at 20, nearly 21.
Yeah, physically I was strong, I was good,
and technically I was good as well.
So I felt as though I was ready, and then you come,
and Liverpool is such a huge club, it comes with a lot of pressure,
and I found that difficult for the first couple of years to deal with.
Performance level wasn't quite at the level that was expected,
away from home, criticism on top of that...
So mentally, it was tough.
But again, one of them things when you get through it
and you're stronger for it in the end.
And what I would say is, during that period I was in the gym a lot,
focusing on just getting better, improving physically all of the time,
and sort of taking the emotion and the anger out in there.
When we're talking about football, you need talent to be a footballer.
Of course, you need that first and foremost, but without hard work,
I've seen it so many times over the course of my life,
how some amazing, talented players either just didn't work hard enough,
or mentally just something wasn't right,
or they didn't really focus on what they wanted to do.
They didn't want to do the extra work, the extra yards
and thought it was easy, you know,
because they were so talented and they were so good,
and probably head and shoulders above a lot of the other players at a young age.
But I think eventually, when players rely on just talent...
Yes, you get your one in a million, but I think the majority,
if you rely on talent you'll get found out somewhere along the line
and people catch up to you, especially the ones who were working hard
and working consistently every single day to become better.
I think you get found out in the end.
So for me, you've got to have a mix of both.
When we're putting talent and work rate and separating it, I still feel as though,
yes, you can have a general platform of talent
and that gets you into an academy or a good level of the game,
but when you put work ethic into that, then you can maximise that talent,
and that talent becomes...
I think you look at Ronaldo as probably the perfect example.
You know, talented, one of the most talented people you'd probably ever see in football,
but how hard did he work to get to where he is?
And the work that he puts in every single day since he was a kid.
You can see it.
And still to this day, you can see it now,
and you see the rewards that he gets on the pitch.