Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes admits coaches earlier in his career wanted to develop him as a centre-half.
The 23-cap Portuguese international, a slight 5'10' attacking midfielder, has scored 18 goals in 33 appearances in all competitions for United, but was encouraged to play at the back when he was younger.
He told the UTD podcast: "I played central defender for the most part, when I started playing football, either central defence or right back. I was really good, I had a coach who said to me, 'If you want to be a top player, you will need to play as a central defender. If you want to be a good player, you will be a midfielder'.
"I think he was wrong but, maybe as a central defender, I could be much better, I don't know! At the time I didn't like to play there, but everyone was saying I was a good defender, they said I was smart, that I covered the sides.
"The coach looked at the list of players, and because some were on vacation he said, 'Oh we have no strikers' and I said 'I'm a striker!' He said, 'I thought you were a central defender' and I said, 'No, I don't play there any more, I'm a striker!'
"So he gave me one try-out in training, I scored twice and he said 'OK, you can play a striker!' He played me as striker in one game, then, in the second game, I was like a fake 9 with two strikers, and after that I moved back to No 10 and No 8."
