Maurizio Sarri Quotes

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

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.

Watch me, and I only really like the ball into feet. I don't like running in behind so much.

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

There's a tipping point that happens with soccer in which you just kinda get it. I was drawn to it because the best soccer teams play similarly to my favorite basketball teams - like the eighties Lakers or eighties Celtics - teams that emphasized teamwork over individualism and relied on passing as their biggest ongoing edge.

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

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

I like to control the ball and analyse the game.

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.

In England, you might have a possession game of six v. six, and it's like headless chickens: people running around everywhere just trying to keep the ball and be strong in tackles. But in Spain, you always stay in your position. You're still in your shape for every drill.

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

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

I have to play with discipline in midfield.

There are a lot of things you learn from playing wide. You also understand the way that you can coordinate with the front three or front two.

If you have a good midfield, you have a good team.

I think defending is more of, like, a science, and it's fun to learn that. And then I see attacking as an art.

Isolation basketball will always be part of the game. But the system has to be predicated on ball movement and, more importantly, player movement.

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.

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

I don't like to put much pressure on myself but yeah that is my sort of football: get the ball, run with it, use my pace, create opportunities, cross.

What I want is to recover the ball as near to the other box as we can, and when we have the ball, play.

When we have the ball, the other team has to run. The most important thing is for the players to be prepared to be a little bit wild.

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.

Everyone wants to score goals - that's the point of football - but you have to look at the whole situation in detail.

I try to get early contact and keep it on the ground. I like to keep the ball down as much as I can.