Joining Off The Ball on Sunday, Damien Delaney discussed Wayne Rooney's new column in The Sunday Times where the former England captain revealed he educated himself with VHS tapes of the great players of yesteryear.
Recognising himself in Rooney's early-career habits, Delaney explained to Joe Molloy how he similarly used YouTube to develop as a footballer while plying his trade professionally in England.
"Especially when I was younger, before I became a centre-half," Delaney said when asked if he considered himself a student of the game.
"I played a lot of football at left-back or central midfield and did a season actually as central midfield in League One one year.
"I always thought if I could learn as many positions as I possibly could it would give me as many chances to play. Whereas, if I just pigeon-holed myself as a centre-back – if a club already had two really good centre-backs then you are kind of killing your chances really.
"So I thought, if they have two centre-backs I'll go and learn left-back. So I played left-back for a season when I was in Hull and I played central midfield for a season.
"I learned to play as the left side in three centre-backs as well."
"I used to watch videos of Maldini!"
Damien Delaney spoke to us about how he studied his rivals! @paddypower
For more football news and features: https://t.co/CL3mKAZ8kI pic.twitter.com/4k44j2hWv8
— Off The Ball (@offtheball) March 15, 2020
Explaining how he expanded the skills in his locker room, Delaney said it was as simple as going online and consuming as much as he could about those he admired.
"You go on YouTube and you watch video and tape. That's why there is no excuse for any young player now with the advent of YouTube, you can go and put anybody's name into YouTube and you are going to get clips.
"I remember watching clips of Paolo Maldini and learning positioning. Ashley Cole was another big one where you just learn defensively where were they, how do they position themselves.
"And then, when I was playing midfield I just studied midfield players, because I thought if you learn as many positions as you possibly can you give yourself as many potential opportunities of playing football."
With Joe jokingly questioning how often he really watched Maldini, Delaney advised him to go back and watch his performances back then: "If you look back at me at Hull in '04 you'll see similarities!"
