In the first episode of our new ‘Influencers’ series, which you can watch below, our popular centre-back reviews footage of five former Reds who’ve had a huge impact on his career, starting with…
1: STEVE BRUCE
“Steve had a huge impact. It was a big reason behind me joining Hull. I had a couple of clubs in for me that year [2014]. I can remember signing for Hull, with Steve the manager, and they were one I really wanted to go to. Obviously, Hull’s a great club as well and I loved my time there, but I must say he was a big influence on why I wanted to sign there, just because I knew what he did for Manchester United. I knew the style that he played, and I knew that he was an amazing centre-back so I could get so much knowledge from him, and I was at an age where I was desperate to learn and get better and improve. No doubt, having Steve as my manager for three years helped me a lot along the way.
“Not so much now, but when I was a young boy and coming up, I was always really good on the ball, and I always just wanted to impress and express myself when I was on the ball and drive forward with it and run up the pitch. I probably focused more on the ball than I did on defending, so I think when I joined Hull and Steve, he really started to make me realise that I am a defender and I need to defend first! And he put into my game what you could see in his game – the no-nonsense defending, how to defend properly, how to defend your box really well. He was a great man-manager, an amazing man-manager, and a great manager as well. I learned a lot from him.”
