Michael Laudrup Quotes

If you play every time, long balls, you lose possession and you lose momentum. I don't want to be like that.

I like to be in contact with the ball, have possession, to play.

My teams have always been dominant about having the ball but having the ball to create opportunities. That's always been the clear way of my work.

Always, even with the U17s in Spain, U19s, we play from the back, and we try to improve on that a lot. So I always enjoy having the ball at my feet.

You pressure, you want possession, you want to attack. Some teams can't or don't pass the ball. What are you playing for? What's the point? That's not football. Combine, pass, play. That's football - for me, at least.

When you master all defensive and offensive aspects of the game and always enjoy the majority of possession, you're sitting in pole position to win.

We need the ball even to defend; that's our objective: having the ball and having it as far as possible from our goal as possible.

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

I like to get the ball on the ground, make good plays and move the ball around the pitch quickly at a good tempo.

If I don't get the service or if I don't the ball in the box, where I want it, I start drifting into midfield. I go and look for the ball. I try to be important for the team in other areas.

You have to take care of the ball to win football games.

Playing with Coutinho is easy. He's a very quick player who dribbles well. He knows how to play out wide, and my job is not just to go past and help him: it's also to give the greatest number of passes to him in space around the opposition right-back.

If you've got someone like Thierry Henry in your team, you get him on the ball.

Before I came to Barcelona, I only thought about one facet of the game: destroying. My qualities were completely defensive, and I wouldn't take responsibility for organising my team's game, our attacks.

Sometimes in midfield, it's nice because you do get a little bit more of the ball, and maybe out wide you rely on people to get you the ball.

What interests Chiellini and I is not conceding goals. We're able to create chances and it makes us happy when we take them.

I liked mostly to play football on the ground and have a little bit of playing tactics rather than just up and down, long balls and second balls. That's not really my game.

I like teams to control and dominate the ball so the players are hungry for the ball.

To be successful you have to find a good balance between offence and defence, to work without the ball, but our main tactic is to work with the ball, to be in possession.

When you are playing with a few players in the pocket, it doesn't leave me isolated. I have a bit more space to work and be higher up the pitch.

Football is open; it is not only keeping possession of the ball and making more passes.

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

Everyone wants to play like Spurs. We want to play attractive football, get the ball forward, and create chances with good possession.

I have to open the game from my position. It's really important to play with the ball.