Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall exclusive: Mark Selby snooker inspiration, ‘gifted’ Jack Grealish, Everton European ambitions

In what is expected to be a typically ferocious atmosphere, Dewsbury-Hall’s love of snooker may well help him through his first experience of the derby.

“I think there’s a lot of similarities,” he says while comparing the two sports in an exclusive interview with TNT Sports. “It’s about that tunnel vision, focusing on every shot.

“Every detail is as important as the previous one because you know, snooker, if you miss a shot, that could be it, you won’t get another chance.

“That focus and shutting out everything around you is so important.”

“I used to play all the time,” he says. “I was fortunate enough to have a snooker table at my house a couple of years ago and I used to be in there all the time playing.

“I would say I’m an average player. I’ve had like a 45 break, so that’s probably the best you’re going to get, but I absolutely love it.

“I’m good friends with Mark Selby. He’s lovely. A big Leicester lad so we always chat. He’s invited me down to watch him at the Crucible.

“It’s just something that stimulates me and makes me want to improve because they make it look so easy, but it’s so hard.”

The Leicester City academy graduate feels that much of what happens when playing snooker can be translated onto the football pitch, as he strives to find the calm amid the chaos.

“I’ve tried to take little tips from people like Mark that helped him to win four World Championships and add that to my game, and I feel like just that calmness and composure is something that’s helped me a lot”.

Aside from Selby, he also paid tribute to Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump.

“Ronnie, for me, is obviously the GOAT,” he said. “I don’t think there’ll be anyone as good as him. The stuff we have seen him do with the cue.

“Obviously, I love watching Mark (Selby). Judd Trump, I think, is a fantastic player; he’s exciting to watch.”

Like everyone in blue, Dewsbury-Hall is hoping to halt The Reds’ perfect start to the season and explains how much, beyond that, the match at Anfield means to the people of the city.

“I feel like everyone around here is just football mad,” he says, having only recently arrived in the area.

“They just live and breathe the sport.

“Even if you’re just walking down the street or you’re getting a taxi. I’ve had taxis where they’re Everton fans and it becomes a nice conversation so you can see what it means to everyone around here.

“It’s been lovely to start the season in a positive way because you see how the city and the people unite. It’s just about trying to continue that and then seeing where it takes us.”

He adds: “I think it’s going to be a really good game too, obviously.

“Everyone knows Liverpool’s level, but we’re on a journey now to try and keep progressing, so a very competitive game too.”

After what he describes as a ‘tough couple of years’ for the club, in which they have found themselves looking over their shoulder in the table, Dewsbury-Hall believes Everton can now start to gaze upwards.

“We’ve got a great balance in the team,” he says. “We’ve got many experienced Premier League footballers. We’ve got exciting players. We’ve just got a great mix of everything.

“We’ve got one of the best managers in the Premier League, in my opinion. He’s been in it 25 years – that tells you all you need to know.

“I’ve worked with some really good managers and he’s up there.

“I feel like we’re just in a healthy, healthy place, the club at the moment. It’s just about continuing to do the right things and processes and then seeing where it takes us.

“It’s been a tough couple of years, but now it’s about building for the next chapter and hopefully, we can start now.”

“He’s a good player,” says Dewsbury-Hall. “I think everyone knows that. But yeah, you get to see him every day. You see what sort of player he is. He’s very gifted and he’s going to be a big help for us in this team.

“It’s not just Jack, though. There’s a lot of players in this team that have impressed me, too many to name, to be honest. So I feel like it’s more of a team thing.

“Everybody’s doing the right things on the pitch and I’ve been in teams. When you do that, you really get success. So that’s what we’re striving towards.”

Dewsbury-Hall believes both he and the club share the same ambition to succeed and thinks that Europe is not out of the question.

“They’re exactly the sort of games and the sort of occasions you want to play in as a footballer,” he says. “I’d never take for granted the amount of experience I’ve managed to have in Europe for Chelsea, for Leicester, and hopefully in the future, for Everton.

“I feel like that’s the aim of this football club in the near future. It has to be nothing less than that because of the new stadium, new ownership. It’s now building for a club that needs to be playing in Europe.

“I’m going to try and bring some experience into that, hopefully.

“It’s different to the Premier League. The Premier League is the best league in the world, but playing in Europe is just that little bit of a different feeling.”

Having started his career in the Leicester City academy, Dewsbury-Hall signed his first professional contract with the club and soon became part of the first team before moves to Chelsea and now Everton.

Despite an impressive career to date, Dewsbury-Hall reveals it was not always smooth sailing amid fears he was not developing as quickly as his peers as a teenager, but also how that setback helped him refine his game.

“It was something that I did struggle with as a younger lad, always being the smallest and the skinniest person,” he admits.

“In terms of how I had to adapt, I just had to be better with the ball basically, because I knew if I was off the ball, if I was in duels with people, I’d just be overrun. So I had to deal with the ball under pressure and move it quick and being able to be one step ahead.

“I had chats with my family over the years about my late development and they just helped me. They just said, ‘look, this is nature. You’re going to catch up eventually. Just do the right things now and then, in a couple of years, you’ll hopefully see that come to fruition’.

“And it happened, nature happened, and I had that growth spurt. I got bigger, I got stronger, I got in the gym and it sort of made a good balance to me then. I was technically good, but then I had the physicality to match.

“There were a lot of dark times, struggles, but I think in the end it moulded me to be mentally tough and determined.”

As well as his family, Dewsbury-Hall also credits former Derby and Southampton midfielder Inigo Idiakez for aiding his development as a player during the Spaniard’s spell as youth coach at Leicester.

“He taught me about looking at football a different way,” he says.

“I always say without him, I might not have even got a scholarship, and then you never know where I would be, so he was a big, influential part of my journey and someone I still speak to now”.

At the time of his breakthrough, The Foxes had just won the FA Cup, meaning Dewsbury-Hall was playing in Europe in his first season at senior level.

“I’ve played in so many different situations,” he says. “Europe, Premier League, Championship, I feel like I’ve learned a lot of different things as a player and as a person in terms of mentally.

“When you’re struggling, when you’re at the top of the table, it’s made me grow a lot, so I feel like I’m in a place now where I’ve got a lot of good experience about me.

“I feel really confident in my game, and playing in the Premier League, I feel like I want to be a standout player and help the team.

“That’s the reason I chose Everton, because we sort of matched and had the same ideas about what we want to do.”

TNT Sports is available across all major TV platforms, offering a line-up of up to four TV channels (TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 2, TNT Sports 3, TNT Sports 4), and up to six digital or red-button channels (TNT Sports 5 to 10), and TNT Sports Ultimate plus TNT Sports Box Office HD.