What Michael Beale told Sunderland midfielder Dan Neil after Aston Villa, Rangers and Liverpool experiences

Dan Neil believes there is lots to learn from Sunderland head coach Michael Beale - who has worked with some of football's best midfielders

Beale took charge of Sunderland just under a month ago, following spells in charge of Rangers and QPR. The 43-year-old has also been an academy coach at both Chelsea and Liverpool, while he was Steven Gerrard's assistant at Rangers (before Beale returned to the club) and Aston Villa.

"I had a good conversation with the gaffer," said Neil when asked about his individual conversations with Beale. "I think I was one of the last ones to get called in and go and speak to him. I had a good conversation, I liked his ideas. He was telling me obviously about his experiences, saying he's worked in Brazil and things like that, all the great players he's coached.

"I was just trying to nitpick certain things, obviously England's best midfielder, he was his assistant for a long time. That's brilliant for me because I get to nitpick about what he was like as a manager, still with the same mentality and the same character. I really enjoyed the conversation and will just keep looking to improve."

Despite Sunderland's 2-1 defeat against Ipswich last time out, Neil is embracing the chance to play for his boyhood club. "I'm enjoying it, how can I not," Neil added. "I'm playing for the club that I've always wanted to play for and we're playing really nice football. We just need to find a way to get results over the line instead of coming away on a horrible 2-1, set-piece goal scoreline. I'm sure once we do that I'll enjoy it even more.

Neil has also adapted his game over recent seasons, regularly dropping into a deeper midfield position where there are greater defensive responsibilities. "It's something that I've kind of had to develop," the 22-year-old admitted. "When I first broke into the first team I was very much just on the ball and wasn't really interested in the defensive side of the game. In League One I got taken out of the team for that reason, so it isn't something that's just naturally happened. It's something that I've had to work on to get back in the team."