The following is an edited version of an interview with Gérard Houllier by thesecretfootballer.com. The full interview can be read on www.thesecretfootballer.com.

What are some of the best coaching sessions for top players and how do you go from being an average coach to a great coach?

Top players are great competitors. So what they like in training is to have competition, to have games, to have opponents. In training I always try to have three things – the three “Ps” ... Progress (make the players progress), Performance (they have to achieve something), Pleasure (they have to enjoy it). Besides that I try to be as near as I can to the real game, which means that I try to have more cycles of one or two movements, transitions, things like that.

You had great success at Liverpool, winning five trophies in 2000-01. Do you have a standout game from that period or perhaps one moment from a game that made you realise how much you love football?

Obviously the five finals stand out, even the first one against Birmingham City, the League Cup final, when Robbie Fowler scored the first goal. Each final was a particular moment.

I would say that winning a European cup, after Liverpool had been deprived of European trophies for a long time, was a major pride for us. So the Uefa Cup final in Dortmund against Alavés and the Super Cup final in Monaco against Bayern Munich were games I will always remember.

Winning the FA Charity Shield against Manchester United was something special for our fans. And playing in the FA Cup final – never mind winning it – is every British player’s dream and a major acknowledgment in their career.

I sometimes remember more moments of the games, or some events within the games, rather than the final result itself. Like the penalty shootout against Birmingham, Michael Owen’s second goal against Arsenal in the FA Cup, Gary McAllister’s free-kick against Alavés headed into his own goal by Geli. Or Patrice Bergues [my first-team coach] trying to hold us out on the pitch because he didn’t know about the golden goal – that was funny!

A heart problem a year later saw a period of recovery that meant you could not be as hands-on with the team as you would have liked. However, many Liverpool fans cite the signing of El Hadji Diouf as a major turning point in the team’s fortunes. Was he really as bad as Steven Gerrard says he was in his new book?

Diouf is an outstanding player. It is not about his football qualities – he’s top class. But his attitude sometimes, particularly his spitting habit, caused us problems. Maybe I should have been more wary of that because, I remember, that he did that once or twice when he was warming up for games. I remember a match at Anfield when he had some problems with West Ham fans. And, of course, what happened at Celtic, when he spat at a Celtic fan, was totally out of line. He was fined and banned for that.

Diouf’s skills were fitting in well, there was no problem with his work, but his attitude and his personality were not fitting into Liverpool’s philosophy. We could have done better in terms of recruitment, obviously. But we lacked time to check and do the usual homework that we do before recruiting a player.

It’s not something against the player. It’s probably more something I regret I couldn’t do because of health reasons. I wish I had kept Nicolas Anelka, instead of recruiting Diouf, but his brothers didn’t help him. Afterwards I became very careful about a player’s attitude.

El Hadji Diouf was a controversial figure at Liverpool. ‘His attitude sometimes, particularly his spitting habit, caused us problems,’ says Houllier. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

You write in your book that Steven Gerrard is perhaps the standout player from your whole career as a manager. I’m a huge Gerrard fan and, when I think he played in England teams with other greats such as Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and John Terry, it seems strange that England could not capitalise on that golden generation. Why do you think that England routinely fail in major tournaments?

They were unlucky! They were held back three times by penalty shootouts in the quarter-finals – Euro 2004, World Cup 2006 and Euro 2012. At times you need some luck to succeed. The penalty shootout is like a lottery; you never know what can happen, though I know that there is an outstanding book, “Twelve Yards”, that proves otherwise.

England had a team to win a major tournament. Now they seem a bit young to me to win Euro 2016. But you never know. They failed in the World Cup in Brazil last year and there’s probably more eagerness in them this time to go far next summer.

I think that your managerial appointment was a pivotal moment in Liverpool’s history, perhaps the first time that the club had tried to break away from their famous “Boot Room” culture. It ultimately laid the foundation for Rafael Benítez to win the Champions League a year after he succeeded you. How difficult was it to propel Liverpool into the modern era with all that history pulling you back?

When I was appointed manager of Liverpool, my predecessors were Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Kenny Dalglish, Ronnie Moran, Graeme Souness and, finally, Roy Evans. Can you imagine how strong and meaningful that was? There was a sort of tradition: the man in charge belongs to the system, he gets out of the Boot Room. And, suddenly, as they said in the beginning, it’s: “Gérard Who?”

Not only did I come from outside the Boot Room but I was a foreigner, not even British! Being a foreigner means different types of training, a different attitude to the work, the job, a different preparation.

I think that when I left, Benítez – and he acknowledged that – had five things that were good for him ...

1. The fact that he could come in after a foreign manager – a Spanish after a French. The pattern of the Boot Room had already been broken.

2. He had new facilities. Melwood had been totally changed, thanks to the board and chief executive, Rick Parry, who accepted that we would do something different.

3. He had a proper team. When I came in, there was not a team of the same quality that there was when I left.

4. Liverpool had new habits. We put the club into the 21st century in terms of training, looking after yourself, having a proper rest. From then on, in terms of preparation, the team was living what was lived in big clubs in Europe. The discipline and attitude to the job were different; the players were more focused, more professional.

5. We left the team in the Champions League. If we had finished in fifth place instead of fourth, we wouldn’t have qualified. And Liverpool would not have won the Champions League ... And qualifying was not easy, I can tell you, with Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal ahead of us.

With my staff we left a legacy. Changing the habits of the players is difficult and takes time. Let’s be blunt: there was a bit of a drinking culture still going on. And we had to get rid of that gradually. You’ve got to be brave, you’ve got to take decisions sometimes, even get rid of some players. But the most important thing is to be convincing. Be convincing that this is the right thing to do if you want to improve, be a better player, form a better team and get better results.

I had noticed that some heavy drinkers, in other clubs, had a lot of recurrent injuries at the age of 27 or 28. Some of them even had to end their career. Some of them were just a shadow of what they used to be. So if you like the job, if you have a passion for football and if you want to play as long as you can, you’ve got to give yourself the right weapons to do that. And your first tool is your body. You will damage your body by staying up late and drinking.

Houllier says he left Rafa Benítez ‘five things that were good for him’ which helped Liverpool to win the Champions League in 2005. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

But there is something more than skills and muscles. There is team spirit. You write in your book: “While France was nurturing Ben Arfa, Germany was training Philipp Lahm and Spain Andrés Iniesta.”

This is an image. It’s true that, in France, we worked extremely hard to improve the skills and creativity of our players. That gave rise to players like Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, Zinedine Zidane, Youri Djorkaeff and so forth. But we probably undeliberately disregarded the team aspect. The skill is useful for the team, not for yourself. It’s not an individual game. We probably enhanced more the skills and the quality of the individuals rather than the team effect that it must have.

While we were working in that area in France, Spain and Germany were working in the same area but combined with team play. A good player is first of all a good team player. This is probably where we were wrong but that changed when I came back to the federation and joined them again in 2008. I worked a lot with Erick Mombaerts and we probably set up a new type of learning and teaching football. And we started to also have our own Iniestas and Xavis.

In your book you say: “English players are usually much easier to coach than their French counterparts.” Can you expand on that?

English players are more straightforward, more honest. If they do something wrong, they don’t try to hide it. They are open and brave enough to say: “Well, this is what happened. I’m sorry.” They also have a culture of effort, they like effort and they have a great respect for hierarchy.

Steven Gerrard is a brilliant example of this culture of effort. He was a natural-born leader as well, albeit it was probably not that obvious the first time I saw him – as I relate in the book.

What job would you love to have a crack at? Is Real Madrid the pinnacle of a manager’s career, as it may be for a player, or would you prefer something away from the pitch? Head of Uefa or Fifa or the French federation?

If I had the physical ability to do it, I would have liked to manage Bayern Munich or Barcelona. As for the French federation, I know there have been rumours but it’s not on my agenda.

Alan Shearer, left, and Michael Owen are named by Houllier as among the best British players he has seen. Photograph: Lee Smith/Action Images

Something that we ask all our guests to do because we know it’s almost impossible. Can you name the five greatest players of all time?

First, Pelé, even if I saw him only on TV. He was above everyone else. And then I would say Michel Platini, Lionel Messi, Johan Cruyff, Cristiano Ronaldo. And Zinedine Zidane. And Diego Maradona. And Bobby Charlton. And Thierry Henry. This is world-class level, top of the top, la crème de la crème. But you’re right. That makes more than five!

If you ask me the best British players I’ve seen in my time, I would say David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen and Alan Shearer – an outstanding striker.

And finally. The majority of people believe that Liverpool’s recruitment strategy is fundamentally flawed. What do you think is causing Liverpool’s current problems? Do you think that Jürgen Klopp is the right man in the right place?

The future will tell but I trust Jürgen to do well. I know him, I think his passion will fit in well with the passion of the fans of Anfield Road. He’s still a young, energetic coach. He knows what he wants, he’s got not only a vision but also a good philosophy. I think he’ll be loved by the players and the fans.

Regarding Liverpool’s recruitment strategy, I would say that their main mistake is that they signed too many players. You need to have cohesion in your team, to keep the players. They lost Luis Suárez and brought in too many strikers. They took Mario Balotelli, they took Rickie Lambert.

I liked Brendan Rodgers because he made his team play very well. And some players improved with him. Unfortunately Liverpool had too many injuries and they didn’t win a trophy. They had an opportunity in the semi-finals of the FA Cup last season, they could have won against Aston Villa. But once again you need to have luck. When you think back to the season before, they were doing so well. And then Steven Gerrard slipped, probably depriving his team of the title.

You know, Liverpool’s results are the results I always look for. And the title of my book says it all: “Je Ne Marcherai Jamais Seul” ... “I’ll Never Walk Alone”.