Brendan Rodgers Quotes

When teams train now, it is about what they do with the ball and, if they lose it, how quickly they press to win it back.

If you look at Barcelona and the way they press high, or Bayern Munich, the way they press high... that's what makes them the best teams, because when they lose the ball, in the first three seconds, that's when they get the ball back, really, really high.

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

Tactically, Italians are very strong. They are a lot into tactics: how to defend, when you lose the ball, where will you be?

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.

It is vital to maintain possession and to win it back as soon as possible, because if we win it high up, then the opposition has to run 70 metres.

I'm a coach who likes to have the ball, but what I really think is, 'How can you be in charge of the game?' I think, but maybe I am the only one, that the defensive process can take care of the game. Why is that? Because teams wait to defend. If you create something where you go to defend, to steal the ball where you want, it's different.

When we have to defend, I just try to recover the ball for the team because it's important, but I always try to go forward when we have the ball.

You can't play man to man against Liverpool and out-pass them. You have to keep your shape and stop them.

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.

We have four parts of our game: working against the ball; in possession; losing the ball; winning the ball. If you are good in all four parts, you have a good chance of winning.

I have faced many, but the most annoying was James Milner. He follows you forward and follows you backwards. It's very difficult because he attacks you and defends you, and then attacks you and defends you again.

When you get lots of players up front, sometimes a counter-attack can take you by surprise and lead to a chance for the opposition.

If my forward arrives in a one vs one situation, I always say: 'let him work it out.' Then my players say: But we can help him!'. My reply is: First, there's a good chance you'll only run in his way, and as a second attacker you're drawing a second defender with you, and two vs two is harder than one vs one.'

Teams that just play on one side of the floor are going to struggle against defenses that load up on that side.

You have to adapt and find your niche, in terms of the type of player you can become, both on and off the pitch. I always knew I'd have no chance against a 1.90m, 90kg defender in a duel, so the key is to avoid these situations altogether. You have to pick your space and time.

The way we play at Liverpool is with high-intensity football, pressing high up the pitch, winning the ball back quickly, and counter-pressing.

At Tottenham, we are just bombing on as wing-backs, but sometimes on the international stage, where there is so much quality, you need to be more careful about the distance between yourself and the right-sided centre-half.

In England and Germany, perhaps, there is more of a focus on the physical side of the game, in breaking down the opposition's play, especially against the lower placed sides.

I don't like getting pinned back with a line of four in midfield. You risk losing too much space.

Most teams won't really focus on one player because they've got multiple players to defend and that will open up a lot of things for me.

I coach defending an awful lot but I don't think too many teams in the Premier League or in the world of football actually coach defending anymore, certainly not the full-backs.

I like to play attacking football, but I think the big difference is that we expect a lot more from our strikers, to do more pressing and to keep compact. We like to play a high line defensively and press the ball.

In Spain, you get seven clear chances a game to receive the ball and shoot. In Italy, you get very few clear balls, and you have to fight everyone to score; that makes you improve and develop.

It's always good to have players who can help us in attack.