Ander Herrera Quotes

I want the ball for 90 minutes. When I don't have the ball, I go high pressing because I want the ball.

To be useful in defence, to win back the ball, you don't always have to go sliding into the tackle. It's also about your positioning; sometimes all you have to do is take a step back.

That ability to press immediately, within five or six seconds to get the ball, is important

In football, you don't hold on to the ball just to hold on to the ball. When you have it you need to be dangerous, create opportunities and score goals. And when you don't, you make sure the opposition doesn't.

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.

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

We know it's impossible sometimes to have good defending against Cristiano Ronaldo but we want to keep the ball, with good possession, as then he can do nothing in attack.

Against Chelsea, you will have periods in the game when you are right up against it, when they keep the ball. They are pretty solid the way they set their team up.

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.

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.

It's not only Van Dijk who can stop Ronaldo. But Ronaldo is good enough to create against really good defenders.

Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso was always bemused by our enthusiasm for tackling, because he saw it as the last resort.

Sometimes you can get sloppy and control the ball right at your feet, and that gives the defenders a chance.

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.

I do not like to use a player solely to make a member of the opposing team, for one simple reason: when we cannot retrieve the ball, we are forced to defend with ten men, giving the opponents an advantage.

It's just always been a knack for me to play defense.

Wales are obviously a team that like to play rugby in your half and put as many people as possible in the front line and get off the line and put pressure on you.

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.

When you play against a top side, you know they will have more possession, and they will be in more control, and you have to find one or two counterattacks.

Any time you can get the ball back to the offense and they put points on the board, you can win games.

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

My shot-blocking ability, it's really second to none.

When we lose the ball, we look to win it back as soon as possible. But you can't do it alone; you have to do it all together.

Sometimes it happens, especially if you're a shooter. They say that you can't play great defense.

Keeping up your concentration is one of the hardest tasks when you're a centre-back because a team like Bayern tend to dominate and can give you sense of false security.