Mason Holgate revealed that the mental reset from playing overseas has allowed him to change his perspective on his time in England.The defender played the entirety of his club career in the country of his birth before he joined Qatari club Al Gharafa last summer.Mason Holgate endured highs and lows at EvertonGettyThe Doncaster-born Jamaican international debuted for Barnsley in 2014 and instantly won the club’s Young Player of the Year award.Everton swooped to sign him a year later for £2 million, with Holgate making over 150 appearances for the Toffees across the next decade.But struggles with fitness and form, not helped by Everton’s managerial merry-go-round, saw him in and out of the starting XI.Holgate is a natural centre-back but was regularly featured on the right, and was even deployed as a defensive midfielder at times.The 29-year-old made just eight appearances in his final full season at the club in 2022/23, before undergoing a succession of loans.Holgate had temporary stints at West Brom, Southampton, and Sheffield United before finding a permanent home in Qatar.“Going through the last few years at Everton, I had a bit of a difficult time going on loans and stuff and not really feeling at home anywhere,” he told talkSPORT.com in an exclusive interview.“When you’re in England, that comes with a lot of pressure. “I was going on loan to Championship clubs and off the back of not really having pre-seasons at Everton and in and around with the younger set up and then going straight into games in the Championship, not starting off in a great way as I’d thought.“I just felt a little bit, I’d call it probably a little bit fatigued mentally, just a bit exhausted with it, because I just felt like I was being judged fair enough, as rightly as you should.His ten-year spell at the club ended last seasonGetty‘I felt like everybody thought it was my fault all the time’“I was being judged off of a different expectation, I felt like, to everybody else who was playing,” he continued to talkSPORT.“For example, obviously, I’m a defender – if we get beat, I felt like everybody thought it was my fault all the time. “I think looking back on it now, that was definitely a privilege and something that I miss 100 per cent with the fans being so passionate in England and stuff like that.“At the time, it just felt like after like two, three years of that happening, it just felt like I kind of needed to reset from that. “Now looking back, obviously it’s a privilege to show that people would expect that of me and something that I expect of myself and would love to do again.”Holgate often played out of his natural position under various Everton managersGettyFrom Everton to QatarHolgate’s final season as a Premier League player saw him generate headlines for his red card challenge on Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma.The England U21 international sadly later revealed he had been sent ‘constant racist abuse’ on his social media in the aftermath.On one of his final outings in English football, Holgate was slammed for ‘poor defending’ in West Brom’s 1-0 loss to Norwich in March.However, following the likes of Roberto Firmino, Aleksandar Mitrović, and Marco Verratti to Qatar has allowed him to mentally reset.The defender received disgusting abuse for his red card in the Blades’ 5-0 defeatGettyHe explained to talkSPORT: “It’s very drastic to say you fall out of love with football and people say it all the time, but it is difficult getting up and the weather’s not great, and you know you’re not performing to where you should be performing yourself and getting up and doing that every day and knowing what you’re capable of.“I was training well, and then there’d just be an incident in the game where something had happened, and I’d just be like, ‘How’s that happened?’ Then all of a sudden that affects the whole game.“I think that coming here and being able to reset that has been huge for me.“It’s probably given me the confidence I need to be, to say I know I am good enough to be at the level that I were expected to be at.Qatar Stars League has been raking in high-profile talents“In England, everything’s live and breathe football. So I might play on a Saturday, we get beat, don’t cover myself in glory, and then it’s not till the next Saturday, if I’m still on the team, that I can put that right.“Whereas here, it’s a little bit more relaxed in terms of you go, you play and it’s kind of easier to reset because you’re not walking the streets and everybody’s coming up to you talking about it or it’s not on such a scale as what England is where it’s just everything’s so microscoped, your friends are talking to you about it, your family’s talking to you about it.“Definitely, it’s given me a whole new look at it and a whole new lease of it.“And I feel like I’m definitely much better off for the experience that I’ve had.”Career moment Holgate still thinks aboutHolgate still holds a number of treasured memories from his tenure at Everton, most notably their great escape in the 2022/23 season. A 3-2 victory over Crystal Palace – coming back from 2-0 down – ensured the Toffees wouldn’t be embroiled in a dramatic final-day shootout to avoid relegation.“Goodison – going in there, the scenes of getting the bus in there and stuff like that, and then at the end, we turn it round to 3-2.“I just remember in the change room at half-time how it felt. And then I think I headed one down, and Keano [Michael Keane] scored and then once Keano scored, it kind of just felt like they were just going in and in and in and in.“I can’t really remember the second half, but it was a great, great memory, and especially the games leading up to that as well. Holgate helped Everton avoid relegation in the 2021/22 seasonGetty Images“I think they’re the games that you want to be part of. Obviously, you don’t want to be part of it because Everton’s a massive club, you don’t want to be in a relegation battle, but games that mean so much coming towards the end of the season are something that’s always going to stick in your memory. “Especially when you come out the right side of it as we did, it’s something that I’ll never forget because I personally feel like I contributed quite a lot going into that last run of the end of the season.“And that’s what I want to do as a footballer, and that’s what I feel like I’m capable of.”