Colorado Rapids striker Kevin Doyle sat down with Richard Clarke this week to discuss his first preseason in MLS, his winter back in Ireland, his personal targets and becoming a leader

You are going into your 14th preseason training regime as a pro, how does this one feel?

It’s nice but it is different. Every one you do is a little bit different when you change clubs. I’m obviously going to be away a lot more than I’m used to in preseason. We’re going to some sunshine but as always in those 14 [preseasons], I just can’t wait until it’s over. There’s lots of stuff that isn’t football and you have no routine for six weeks. No matter where you are in the world, preseason is a bit mad.

And how do you feel about your first full season in MLS?

Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. Definitely looking forward to the season more so than when I came over first. Obviously it was halfway through, and you’re trying to set your family, get in to a house and get to know people. Now I come back for the first day of preseason and I know everyone. It feels like home coming into the locker room. It’s not like you’re an outsider, and that can only be a big help for me. I feel fit; my body feels really good. I just want to get fitter and staying injury free and have a good start.

Did you do some training while you were away?

I was on the beach in Ireland [training] every third or fourth day. I took three weeks off after finishing in the middle of November with the Irish national team. I started back at the end of the first week of December. I did a lot of gym work and did some running. Everyone, whether you’re a professional athlete or not, if you don’t do anything for three or four weeks and you come back straight into a heavy preseason like we will have, you will struggle. So you have to come back with some sort of base, some sort of fitness. In my case, I’m looking to build on my strength which is why I did a lot in the gym. It’s more for the mental side. We’ve got six weeks to get ourselves going but you don’t want to be really behind from the start. I think everyone has come back OK, especially with us having so long off. You can’t just chill out for the whole time.

Going into the season, do you have any goal targets?

Some seasons I have had targets and other seasons I haven’t. But it seems to have no correlation in if I do well or don’t. So my targets are just being fit and being healthy. I want to train hard, I want to do well in the games, and in that case, you aim to have a certain amount of shots every game and the goals will come from that. As a striker, I want to get to double figures and then add to that. But I remember in one season at Reading I had 18 goals by January 1, but only got three between then and the end of the season so you just don’t know what way it’s going to come. I just look to be consistent throughout the season and not have peaks and troughs, and again try to get some important goals while staying fit.

And how are the Rapids looking in your opinion?

Everyone is a year more experienced. Even in the five months I’ve been here, we had some tough times and some good times. We had those spells of winning three in a row and you think you’ve sort of turned a corner then we’d lose three in a row. I think the manager is a year more experienced and a lot of young players last year are a year more experienced. We have new players coming in too of course and there’ll be more to come.

For my part, I’m experienced in MLS now and I know more what it’s about so I’m ready for this season. I think if you take the positives from last season you feel that we could beat anyone in the league. There was no team where you felt that you couldn’t win. We probably struggled more against the teams that were around us and maybe at home more so than away for whatever reason. I can’t explain that. We are sort of a counter-attacking team so maybe that helped away from home last season.

Also, at the start, there were a lot of draws and if you turn a few of those in to victories you could easily have made the playoffs. We need to start reasonably well to have that confidence because we are coming from a low base. If you start well and build that confidence, you never know what that brings you. So I think you take the positives from it and forget the negatives.

And MLS has perhaps the most parity in the world…

Definitely, anyone can win it. It’s like the Championship in England where anyone can beat anyone, anyone can surprise and win the thing. I think this league, obviously with all of the rules and regulations, is very close. We showed that last season. We go to Seattle and win, you go to these places and win and beat teams at their home. We just need to do that more often, it’s as simple as that really. We need to do it week in and week out. We can’t afford to be losing three games in a row, four games in a row. You can lose one or two in row but then you have to bounce back straight away.

Do you feel experienced enough to take on more of a leadership role with the Rapids this season?

I think everyone feels they can say what they want in the locker room. There’s no one that is too shy. If I feel I need to say something, I usually say it. I don’t say much but I save it for when I think it’s needed and hopefully the less the better.

And, finally, how are you approaching the possibility of going to UEFA Euro 2016 with Ireland?

If I play well and get picked and go to the Euros, brilliant. If I don’t, the positive is I’m here for the whole season not missing any games. I’m not trying any harder to get in to the Ireland squad, I’m trying as hard as I would anyway. If I play well in the next two or three months you never know, I might go to the Euros. If I do, I’ll probably miss three games here, but there’s a bit of a break at the time for the Copa America anyway. If I don’t get selected then I’m here through all the Rapids games so I’ll look at it as a positive either way.