Queens Park Rangers v Burnley

hoops
We’ve seen several different combinations in
central defence so far this season, with four
of you contesting two places. Does the extra
competition mean greater motivation?
It definitely stops you getting lackadaisical,
for sure. As I’ve said before, I think it’s really
healthy and positive. Everyone wants to play,
we’re all fit and available and, when you’re
surrounded by quality centre-backs, it rubs off
on you and makes you a better player. We’re
all very different players – you’ve got Leon’s
experience, Jake has a different background in
the game and the number of times I’ve played
with Rob already, we’ve done well together.
You’ve lined up alongside each of the other
three at some stage this season – do you
need to adapt your style depending on who
you’re playing with?
Not really. I think you just have to bring the best
version of what you bring to the table and not
get distracted by other players – the important
thing is concentrating on what you do well.
Clean sheets speak for themselves and we
achieved quite a few earlier in the season, so
we’d like to start getting back to those sooner
rather than later.
You spent five years with today’s opponents,
Burnley. What are your memories of your time
at Turf Moor?
Burnley was a wonderful experience for me, it
was the stepping stone I needed to bridge the
gap from being an academy footballer to playing
a man’s game. At the time I was surrounded
by top Premier League centre-backs and I’m
grateful to have been given that opportunity.
Burnley was a really good club for young players
– even if they didn’t have that many coming
through into the first team, they always gave you
the opportunity to go out on loan and develop
that way. I had five or six loan spells during my
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