Thiago Silva Quotes

At Ajax, they are strict when it comes to using the ball as a defender.

Sometimes you can get sloppy and control the ball right at your feet, and that gives the defenders a chance.

Rafa Benitez was keen on defending - all dropping back together if you lose the ball.

It is an important part of the role of a centre-back to focus on building up the game and initiating moves.

What Liverpool do really well is they try to get you inside but then close you down.

Now and again, you may be picking a pass or two in behind, making something happen, but when we're attacking - especially at Liverpool - I'm focusing on protection, being disciplined, being careful, worrying about counter-attacks, things like that.

I'm a defender, and my first job is to make the team secure at the back; that's my primary responsibility.

I like consistency in defenders.

Keeping up your concentration is one of the hardest tasks when you're a centre-back because a team like Bayern tend to dominate and can give you sense of false security.

Centre-backs with good technique can move the ball forward, even when under pressure.

You put a lot of pressure on your defenders to be able to hold the fort when you go forward.

Defending isn't just about tackling and heading, it's also about getting the ball down and playing - starting the attack from the back.

In football, you don't hold on to the ball just to hold on to the ball. When you have it you need to be dangerous, create opportunities and score goals. And when you don't, you make sure the opposition doesn't.

I want the ball for 90 minutes. When I don't have the ball, I go high pressing because I want the ball.

On a tactical level the defensive midfielder in a 4-3-3 formation is just about the most demanding position there is.

When I've watched teams that play with five at the back and wing-backs, I've looked at their starting positions and positions out of possession because that comes a little bit more unnaturally to me.

I know if I'm playing centre-back, there are certain places where you don't give your full-back the ball - because I've been the full-back!

The beginning of everything is our defensive organisation. The clean sheet is always the first objective that we have in the game. Always.

To be useful in defence, to win back the ball, you don't always have to go sliding into the tackle. It's also about your positioning; sometimes all you have to do is take a step back.

Playing at fullback it's part of your role to get up and take those high balls.

We know it's impossible sometimes to have good defending against Cristiano Ronaldo but we want to keep the ball, with good possession, as then he can do nothing in attack.

Against Chelsea, you will have periods in the game when you are right up against it, when they keep the ball. They are pretty solid the way they set their team up.

When you play against a top side, you know they will have more possession, and they will be in more control, and you have to find one or two counterattacks.

I need to play smarter and protect the football.

Every game, well most of them, come down to turnovers and the turnover battle.