Gareth Barry Quotes

Busquets is a sitting midfield player who breaks up play, intercepts, passes it very quickly and is intelligent. That's what he is. He's not much more than that, but he gets a lot of praise for it. Whereas Eric Dier does a similar job, but sometimes gets loads of criticism for it.

I don't really like all these tactical systems people talk about: 3-5-2, 4-3-3, and all that.

I don't want Kylian to play like Neymar and keep the ball. Kylian is incredibly dangerous in the final move, and I want him to stay that way.

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

Whenever you play against Fred - we certainly did it - you let him get it because he has to take three or four touches. He doesn't know how to do one or two touches. Anyone that watches his game, he gets it facing the wrong way, turns, turns, chops, chops and he'll give you the ball three or four times a game.

As a holding midfield player, you want movement and to play between the lines.

I would like to do what Cristiano has done: start wide and go into the middle as a No. 10 or 9.

Not many know this, but in training sessions, I like to play in the center-back position sometimes. I think I'm good at that position, and my father used to be a central defender. Some people don't realize that if you play in that position, you can better understand how the defender thinks.

As a midfielder, when you have sealed things up at the back, my job is to provide the ammunition for the strikers and forwards, to create opportunities for them.

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.

At Inter Milan, I agreed to play on the wing and didn't like it.

United are about attacking football, and everything else has to takes its place behind that.

That's the intelligence of football: to see when to be compact, when to counter-attack, or, if you see that you're in the opposite half, you try and win the ball.

I am very proud of being Brazilian, but I am also thankful for having the chance to play in Germany for four and a half years. I have completely changed the way I play football because Germany is a tougher, faster game which is more tactical with tighter marking.

I like it when I am in the middle; I am closer to the ball. The manager wants me to pass, to make assists, create chances, and I do more because I think the position is more central, and I don't ask all the time for the ball at my feet.

Pochettino likes to play from the back, with the buildup, have the ball.

The important thing for me is we want to keep the ball, we want to have the ball because we are Arsenal football club.

Nowadays midfielders definitely have to be complete players - you can't just be a destroyer, you have to build play too.

I pass and I move, I help you, I look for you, I stop, I raise my head, I look and, above all, I open up the pitch...The one who has the ball, is the master of the game...Thats the school of Joan Vilà, of Albert Benaiges, of Johan Cruijff, of Pep Guardiola

It was Thomas Tuchel's first season as coach and I played centrally always. The whole team had a great year, one that I enjoyed a lot. Our style has changed a bit, from trying to score within five seconds to a more calm and in some regard more educated style of play. We try to find the right moment - and then we explode.

The midfield are like a chef, trying to prise open a stubborn oyster to get at the fleshy meat inside.

You can put the players on the pitch but they always move and systems change. I think, though, that Messi has to be a special case and that the other nine outfield players should support him. But one player on his own is not going to win you the World Cup.

I don't like the Italian approach. I don't want to be involved in that kind of football.

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.

I always like the players to be within 10 to 15 metres of each other. When the attacking players try what I am asking them to do, and it breaks down, there are players close enough to then go and win the ball back and counter press the game.