Dani Alves Quotes

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.

Most teams - whether they like it or not against Manchester City - you're going to find yourself quite often penned in your own half.

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

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.

When I don't have control of the ball, what do I do? I press to get it back. It's a way of defending. But more important is that I like to have the ball. That's why I believe in individual coaching sessions to prepare players properly.

At Ajax, I got an education in how to be confident on the ball, my technique, and then, at Atletico, I learned how to defend. It was about the details, the ruthlessness; be clinical in front of your own goal, win every duel, be clever. I learned so much and, defensively, I grew there so much.

Padoin is proving himself to be a great professional. He's tactically intelligent, and it's tough to play in front of the defense.

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

I started in a 4-3-3 formation at Ajax, playing in left midfield. There, you need to be just as involved defensively as you are going forward. You attack and you defend, and that allows you to be a complete player.

I've always said it, and the whole football world knows that Cavani is a centre-forward and that he has proven his worth in that position. Having said that, Cavani has shown other characteristics that can help the team, like winning the ball back, helping out defensively.

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.

My perfect formation would be 4-3-3 with one holding and then the two going forward. I would be one of the ones going forward.

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.

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

Someone said that my coaching is a combination of Milan's defensive discipline and the Dutch propensity for attacking football, and I think that is a fair description.

Gary Neville never seemed to know when he was beaten, and Ashley Cole never gets beaten.

My Italian adventure was positive because I improved a lot in tactical terms, most of all defensively, which is something I hadn't worked on quite so much.

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.

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.

All coaches now look for forwards who not only score goals but also run back and help in midfield.

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.'

The important thing to understand, from my point of view, is if the opponents break our lines and they are attacking our box, something has gone wrong, and it is me who has to fix it. But fouls in football are normal. You have to do it sometimes.

My confidence has been really building since my time at Espanyol. The two coaches are actually very similar on the pressing side of the game. They spend a lot of time on that side of it, and it's a lot of hard work.

The interaction between the goalkeeper and the back four has to be top to compete in the Premier League.