If you watch British teams, we will pass to a certain extent then we might play a hopeful ball somewhere or a flick.

It doesn't happen that way at Barcelona because they want to give you the best ball they can possibly give you to continue their move. They are brave enough to be on the ball and beat someone.

Anyone within the Barcelona side can beat anyone in any space at any given time.

We do not have that in Britain. People are looking for the answers. It is quite simple — just use your eyes and you'll see. It stands out. Barcelona players can beat anyone any time. They also have ability with their decision making. When to pass it and when to beat people.

When you watch Barcelona, in a strange way it can become tedious sometimes.

Strachan was left astonished by Andres Iniesta (left) when he played at Parkhead three years ago 

You think to yourself: 'The same thing is happening all the time' and then something will happen in every game that you have never seen before.

I think we live in a great age of technology and there are so many things going on that you couldn't imagine 40 years ago. I didn't think football could ever get as good as this when I see some players play.

GH: Do you mean excellent technique at such high speeds repetitively?

GS: I mean the imagination, flair. Things I never thought possible. Forty years ago, it was the Jimmy Johnstone way. 'You go one way or you go the other way' when it came to beating people. Now there are all sorts of ways to beat your opponent with the technique of today's players.

Tackling has changed. There is far more protection for the players and that is where we struggle in Britain sometimes, especially in Scotland.

Teams would come and play the national side and we used to kick 10 bells out of them. That can't happen any more. The days of the 'midfield destroyer' are gone. A modern midfield player has to be a thinker. He has to be able to intercept and counter-attack. All that has come together, like the perfect storm, to create Barcelona and the players that are there.

Iniesta holds off the challenge of Celtic's Kris Commons during the clash in Glasgow in November 2012 

GH: You used a word I absolutely agree with. You used the word brave — bravery.

GS: They are at one with the ball. The ball feels part of them at any time. That is what we are missing now. Most football players in Britain are not at one with the ball. For the players of Barcelona, the ball is a part of them.

GH: So what is lacking and what can be done?

GS: It is quite simple: hours. Hours and hours and hours of practice. If you want to be better than the other group of players, you have to work twice as hard. That doesn't just mean footballers running about closing down. It is working with the ball all the time.

I have studied football and the kids' academies for 10-15 years now and I do believe it is all to do with the ball and the number of touches.

There is something fundamentally wrong that a kid can go from Aberdeen to Kilmarnock, play a game of football, get 10 minutes of football, then get back on the bus or in the car with mum and dad and go back up the road.

So they have spent nine hours travelling to get eight touches of a ball. It's all wrong. The game is not about where you run. That comes after you have mastered the ball.

I worked out that better academy players get an average of 120 touches every Sunday — and that is having travelled the various distances required, which is a waste of time. That time can be better spent with the ball.

Neymar races away to celebrate after he scored his second goal against Bayern Munich on Tuesday 

I asked my wife once to count the number of touches I had kicking the ball off the garage wall for half an hour. I kicked the ball off the wall with my right foot, controlled it with my left and then kicked it with my left foot and controlled it with my right. I got 1,000 touches in half an hour. That is the equivalent of eight games of academy football. Until you master the ball, everything else is a waste of time.

GH: Let's talk about Leeds. Presumably at that stage in your career you were deploying the experience you had gathered, deciding what to do differently, whether it was how you lived or how you played and how you trained?

GS: The intensity was still there. I was covering more kilometres at 36 than I was at 19. My style didn't allow me to just walk about and take it easy. You can't ask your body to train at 80 per cent when you are playing against Manchester United or Chelsea on a Saturday and 100 per cent is required. You have to train at your maximum.

Rest was very important. I picked up a few things from Kenny Dalglish. I used to go to bed every afternoon at 2pm and get up at 4pm. I never went out in the afternoon, whether it was golf or something else. I love golf but I never picked up a club during the football season.

GH: Just in case something was to happen?

GS: I think it is strange that, as a footballer, some will go and play golf on a Wednesday or a Thursday and walk for five miles up and down hills with a weight on their back. If training was like that, the response from the lads would be: 'You must be joking'.

The riches and responsibilities in football today mean everything you do now has to be with a full focus on football. That is why, at the clubs I've managed, I have asked the players not to play golf or drink during the week and the same rules apply to me.

Strachan (left) played under Alex Ferguson at Aberdeen from 1978 to 1984

GH: When I speak to ex-players or current players, it is apparent that they will not always be shown an example by their manager. That is, the manager will ask his players one thing and go and do another.

GS: When I took over the Scotland job, the first thing I told the players was: 'No alcohol allowed. There will be no alcohol in the team hotel.'

It doesn't matter who we are playing — or even if we beat Germany — the players know to not ask about alcohol. Then I drop the bombshell to the staff: 'You're the same'. The idea that the staff can't have a drink has never been considered before but my view is if we are going to ask to players not to drink, the same must apply to us.

I don't like alcohol. When you look at football and the problems that exist within it, or the social side of football, alcohol is involved somewhere.

GH: That would include fan behaviour in our lifetime?

GS: Yes. I am fine when I am in Spain. I live there and you live there, so you know people don't fight or scrap. Very rarely do you see the football teams in Spain singing and dancing in a hotel. There was a recent incident of that here. Having the alcohol rule is a protection for the players, so they don't get themselves in trouble. I did drink alcohol when I played but that was the environment I was brought up in.

GH: Meaning you drank a little?

GS: Yes, just a little. I am not talking about drinking all the time. I mean, I had a wee drink after the game at the weekend or maybe a Wednesday night after the game, but through Alex Ferguson I learned discipline.

With Paul McGrath and Bryan Robson in the side, you could be forgiven for looking at your contract to see if there was a clause in there saying you had to have a drink.

Barcelona manager Luis Enrique employs a sports psychologist but Strachan is skeptical about them 

GH: So there was a point when you realised 'I can't do this any more'.

GS: This was especially the case when I became a manager. That was when I thought: 'Time to stop'. I used to socialise every month on a Saturday night. All the players and the wives would get together and have a drink. However, when I became a manager I thought: 'No, this is wrong'. I think I had a drink one day when I was at Coventry and I woke up with the same problems but a hangover as well. It's harder to deal with.

GH: The position you take goes against something which is entrenched in British culture. That is, the idea you can create sporting bonds — team bonds — by going on drinking sessions or drinking regularly together.

GS: I feel that is false because when we have a drink that tends to create a false bravado. When drinking sessions happen, I think a lot of the time players just follow on. There are other things the players do, whether it be playing golf or going Go-Karting.

Winning together bonds you. Winning and getting beaten together, and having to deal with defeat, the hurt, together bonds you.

I remember after the first couple of results with Scotland I popped my head in the dressing room, just for a second, and the background staff, the coaching staff, everyone, was jumping about enjoying themselves. Winning creates a team spirit. The rest of it is a nonsense.

GH: I suppose you learned a wide rainbow of things from watching other sports, nutrition, fitness, sports psychology?

GS: Sports psychology is OK one-on-one. As a manager, people ask: 'When does your sports psychology work?'. Every second of the day. I've got to look like a leader, behave like a leader, look after players.

That's first thing on Monday morning when I come in because the steward will say to the receptionist: 'He's a bit down, he's this, he's beat…'

You've got to walk in there and convince everybody that you are ready for this next game coming up.

And he was like that, (Sir Alex) Ferguson. And basically you try to do the same.

Scotland boss Strachan insists that his players and management afford alcohol while on international duty 

Sports psychologists, when they're doing their university studies, it's basically: 'Make somebody better'. That's what you do. Help them. It's not that way in the footballing world.

I have 25 or 26 players. Say Alex Ferguson had that. He only needs to make 14 feel better for that weekend game. The rest? Deal with it. I'll deal with you later. If you're down, tough. You feel bad about yourself? Tough.

If you feel like bursting into tears, as many of us did after the abuse we got, tough, deal with it. I'll bring you back into the fold when you're ready to come back into the fold.

Sports psychology, you're the man, you're the manager, you're the sports psychologist at a club.

OK, some people might need individual help with problems on and off the pitch. A sports psychologist might help.

But generally the football manager is the sports psychologist.

GH: Luis Enrique has a sports psychologist, who is like a limpet to him, on his shoulder when he's doing interviews. Even the elite players at Barca think: 'This is witchcraft, take it away'.

GS: That's a problem. You are what you are. The players want you to lead them, not this voice from the side. They want you to be the leader. They want you to lose your temper in an interview and say: 'I'm not listening to this. You're telling me my players are not very good. I'm telling you they're good'.

And they go: 'Oh, yeah, he's fighting our corner. He's defending us'. They don' t want another voice in there.

Ferguson was the best sports psychologist. The way he went about it, you couldn't get away with it in any other business apart from sport. He was ruthless.

Republic of Ireland manager Martin O'Neill collects the ball off Strachan during the Scotland tie in November 

GH: Was he unfair?

GS: You would think he was unfair. And he scarred people for life, some people.

GH: Normal people get tired out by that. It breaks you.

GS: He worked on anger. It was his petrol. And to be fair, I'm not going to say I'm anything like him but, when I was a football player, anger made me a better player. It made me more determined, more focused.

GH: Did it damage you?

GS: No. I could go away and not be angry any more. It was on and off. If you spoke to anybody who worked with me, they will tell you they spent most of their time laughing.

GH: With Fergie, a lot of it was created, although the anger was real…

GS: Listen, Aberdeen, when he was a young manager and had us in the same dressing room, you would pay thousands to see it — millions to see what went on in there.

He'd come in and the raw energy in the room was quite frightening. It was incredible, fantastic. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Strachan on Fergie, anger, Cantona, Real Madrid, Leeds and weeping psychologists is in the full podcast from iTunes and Audioboom

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