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Each time I watch a Liverpool game, I feel something special, especially whenever it's at Anfield, because it brings back great memories.
Guardiola has a lot of knowledge about the game and understands the psychology of the players. You can see all the things he is doing well.
I've still got Paul Scholes' shirt at home, which I swapped with him once. When I was at Liverpool, he was one of the players I liked most.
When the results are good, everything seems prettier; when things go bad, it seems like all conflicts, personal disputes, and problems arise.
I accept I am going to miss playing because it's such an important part in my life. It's going to be difficult to fill that gap. Life goes on.
The grass, the sound of the ball, the jokes with my teammates - that's what I will miss most. That is what fulfills you most on a daily basis.
Mesut is one of those unique players you see every once in a while. He has the gift of a perfect touch in tight spaces that makes him special.
I have been lucky enough to work with great coaches. My father was also a coach, and my position in central midfield requires tactical knowledge.
How many times have you seen me run into the box with the ball, dribbling past players? It's uncommon because it's not my game; it's not my thing.
You need to have the same ideas to work as a team, to have a good team spirit. And you don't get there in a day or even a month. It takes some time to get there.
I have improved with time by playing for elite teams in elite leagues and the Champions League and with the Spanish national team in World Cups and European Championships.
When I was a Real Sociedad player, we lost on every occasion we visited Camp Nou. Maybe that is normal for a small team, but with Liverpool and Real Madrid, you expect more.
Passion isn't something you work on. It's more important to construct a good team, to know how you are going to play, how to read the match. You have to truly understand the game.
My game is not to have one great action. My game is to be consistent throughout: to bring the ball in the best and quickest possible way for the best players to make the last action.
They value different things in every country. In England, it's very physical. You tackle, you shoot. I love watching it. In Spain, it's different. Pass the ball, move, find the space.
The midfielders are important: they have to offer themselves to receive the ball and make good use of it, take choices, try not to lose the ball and defend. But I don't feel like a leader at all.
I feel very comfortable with the system used by Mourinho. It's a very dynamic 4-2-3-1 that can easily change to 4-3-3 or 4-1-4-1 depending on the moment or the team's needs. He really knows what he wants.
Sometimes that kind of last-ditch tackle can get the crowd excited, and you get a push from that. It's important to play with that psychological side of the game, but it depends on the quality of the player.
That is probably the biggest issue about the English game. You need to be a great player and great at striking the ball, of course, but it's also about your head and being able to understand the game, especially for a midfielder.
The only thing I regret is not winning the Premier League with Liverpool. I'll never know how that feels and experience the reaction of the city, as I did after Istanbul. It hurts because I know the people want the league title more than anything.
In England, those qualities of playing it simple, being in the right position, reading the game, knowing the right moment to make things happen around you are not appreciated. Making a tackle, a run into the box - the spectacular things are more appreciated.
That's one thing that I've always wanted: to make my own decisions and not to be pushed. That has happened in my career, and I wanted to leave football, not football to leave me. I wanted to enjoy it as much as I could and to leave it a little bit earlier than too late.
If you win the midfield, you probably win the game. But that doesn't mean the players in the midfield are the ones alone who determine that, because now we have strikers who drop into midfield and defenders who move up into the midfield. It is the area you must dominate.
Leaving Liverpool was the toughest decision I had to make in football because I was in an exemplary club, a proper football club, with a lovely and sharing stadium that meant a lot of things to me. The fans are the best in the world, no doubt about that, and I was comfortable there.
Bayern is a big club and a big brand, but on a daily basis, it's a family club. You get to know the physios, the kit man, the chefs. It's also a club that's very close to the supporters. That proximity to the fans makes it special. That was surprising. In Liverpool and Madrid, there's more distance.
At Liverpool, I used to read the match day programme, and you'd read an interview with a lad from the youth team. They'd ask age, heroes, strong points, etc. He'd reply, 'Shooting and tackling.' I can't get into my head that football development would educate tackling as a quality, something to learn, to teach, a characteristic of your play.
I've still got Paul Scholes' shirt at home which I swapped with him once. When I was at Liverpool he was one of the players I liked most. Maybe he's not valued as much as he should be in England because of the style of football there and because he keeps a low profile. Perhaps he would have been more valued in Spain, where midfielders like him form part of the 'ideal.' Fans in Spain rate him very highly and I admire him a huge amount.