Cristiano Ronaldo was someone I got to spend plenty of time with at the start of the 2007/08 season. A red card in the second game of the season meant he was banned for three games, which gave me the perfect opportunity to work on some things with him.

I believed he was one of the best forwards at a very young age, but he wasn’t productive enough. We needed him to score more goals.

I knew that was what he wanted too.

My aim was to bring him from awareness to understanding. To recognise how he could get from where he was to where he wanted to be. That was about a few things off the pitch, but a lot of things on it.

It was also about the value of setting aims and targets, and explaining to him that people who have a clear goal – and devise a strategy to get there – will be far more successful than those who say “I want that”, and then wait and hope for the best.

He was very receptive to anything that he knew could bring him closer to what he wanted.

“Top players need that freedom to express themselves and make their own decisions. They thrive on that”

Sir Alex was always big on the idea that what you do in training will manifest itself in a game: good and bad. So, training sessions with the first team were all at a very high level in two ways: the menu that we put together for them, and the execution of the players.

What I found with the top players at United, which is different to any other level I’ve worked at, was that they were excellent at taking on information and taking responsibility.

As a coach then, I needed to inform the players – for example, about a defensive problem we wanted to solve, or an attacking approach we wanted to look at – and then facilitate that session. But it wasn’t a coaching session in the style of: “Stop, I want you there. Stop, I want you there.”

It was about giving a lot of independence to the players. Empowering them.

Yes, we can give pointers here and there, and ask questions: “What about this? What about that?” But it’s not about coaching in the traditional sense, because the top players need that freedom to express themselves and make their own decisions. They thrive on that.