Nick Nurse Quotes

Understanding the intentions of a play is so key because you can block a guy into the running back if you don't know how the play is supposed to work or where the back is going to come out.

In football, time and space are the same thing.

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.

The big thing is to win, but to look at the long-term, you need one way to play, and the philosophy is not only to put 11 players on the pitch and play football.

I'm going to play the quarterback position the way coaches install the plays; I'm going to go through the reads just like they install it.

It's a different style the way the German players play. I think the English players like to play a lot of one and two touch and we can find each other in the pockets.

This is football, so you need to be clever to understand the moment and win games.

The midfield is the heartbeat of a football team, it's the centre of the action, so you can't just do one thing.

Pass a lot, use some reverses and toss in a gadget play once in a while for the TV audience. None of that detracts from winning.

I always play football in my team, and I know that if you play too much long ball, then it's difficult.

Obviously, in football you can study somebody, but at the same time, once you get out there, I think there's just a natural kind of feel for where you think guys might be or where they're going to go and knowing beforehand what's going to happen. It's just like chess.

I do want to play the short ball and I do want to play the long ball. I think long and short balls is what football is all about.

I came from Ajax where you play 4-3-3 and as a winger they didn't want you to defend.

Football is not an exact science, but it is about chemistry: Ronaldo and Mandzukic, when they are together, have an excellent understanding.

I don't know why I performed well against Arsenal, but probably we prepared well, and it could be their football style as well.

I know my background was defense, but I'm not a defensive coach who wants to win 9-7 every week.

When you're at a club like Liverpool, it's always about what you can do with the ball.

I did a lot of lower league, and in lower league, you're not going to be playing out from the back; you're going to hit it long and try to get the second ball.

Pep is a super coach! He is excellent. He is the best at analysing an opponent and the concept of a game. I don't know what impact he had on German football, but he left a mark on all of us at Bayern because of how he analysed and educated the players in each position and the way he taught us to play.

It's not science; it's common sense: it's playing the right players in the right positions for the style of football you want to implement in a specific game.

At the end of the day, I'm a good defensive football coach.

When you're dropping back and everything's going on, part of you wants to force it, but you have to make the right decision and not force the ball and sometimes throw it away.

I like to push the ball down the field when it's there. There's also times you just take the underneath one.

If you play bad, you can win the games, but you have to play good and get the three points.

I'm a football fanatic. I love the game of football. I love learning new things, and I love being taught things. So I try to learn as much as I can, and even at a young age, I was really focused on how to be better and trying to learn all the techniques.