Declan Rice Quotes

Busquets reads everything. Players like Busquets or Xabi Alonso in midfield have the capacity to read the whole game.

If Lukaku is not as good as others with his first touch, then give him a ball that he can handle.

People compare me to Verratti, and I do really like him, but we have very different playing styles.

When I used to play against Bayern, Xabi Alonso always used to give me a really hard time. He was so experienced... he made me suffer. The way he'd keep switching play just meant that you could never stop running. He was very intelligent.

You have to have something in your head to understand the Barcelona play. You have to adapt as quickly as possible.

You watch Silva, and he almost never gives the ball away. He is always looking, thinking, making the right calls.

Jorginho is not a physical player, he is a technical player, but the most important quality is that he is very quick in the mind. He has the ability to move the ball very quickIy.

You watch the game, you don't see Busquets. You watch Busquets, you see the whole game.

When you're a kid you just think about where you are going to be to put yourself in a position for the next scoring chance. But as you develop, you start to do things that may not catch the eye of the normal football watcher, the dropping back, the closing down.

Rather than opera, football is more like ballet or a chess game. You can really see it in a team like Arsenal, especially when Dennis Bergkamp was playing. He seemed to be able to read the game like a chessboard and knew where a player would be several seconds later and put the ball there for him.

There are footballers who are very good playing on the outside but don't know what to do inside. Then there are players who are very good inside but don't have the physique, the legs, to go outside.

I like Jorginho, the way he plays and passes.

Guardiola likes footballers who can pass the ball, who have eyes for the best position and the right runs.

I like to control the ball and analyse the game.

I like playing just outside of my own penalty box, the player who receives the ball and organises the game.

For me, David Silva is a fantastic player because his technique is incredible, and he understands when the right time to pass the ball is.

Ozil is a genius. He has one-of-a-kind vision for the game. He has two eyes in the front of his head and two eyes in the back.

It is impossible to do it for the whole game, but when you have the ball for most of the game and have players like Samir Nasri, David Silva, Yaya Toure, and Raheem Sterling, they keep the ball so well.

I'd say my main quality is keeping the ball and my passing.

Dominating the midfield is the most important thing in modern football. To succeed, you have to be good at everything.

If you have a good midfield, you have a good team.

Busquets is a great player. I have many things to learn from him: how he shapes the game from the back, his positioning, the balance he provided in the midfielder.

For me it's more difficult to play against the quicker wingers, but for the team it's perhaps more difficult to face players that are good passers, because one through ball can take the whole team out of the game.

Both Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic are classy players, top midfielders. They play for Real Madrid and Barcelona. That tells you everything.

Each coach you have gives a little something to every player, but the one who changed my game the most was Mancini. He taught me to play more outside the area, dropping me back a bit.