Ryan Babel Quotes

In the English 4-4-2 you have to change your mentality from a winger to a left midfielder, having to help your full-back.

Everything I did on the left I had to learn in a 4-4-2 system, it wasn't natural. To collect the ball on my wrong foot.

I prefer playing in a 4-3-3.

I got the call, 'Celtic want you.' And I knew Celtic were a top, top team. I thought it would be much easier than it was. It was quicker than I thought. When you got the ball, there was always a defender at you.

With Arsenal, I've been playing out wide, which is not me.

When I got the ball in the reserves, within two touches I would turn and look to attack my opponent, whereas in the first team, I was trying for the safer option. I needed to go back to basics. I needed to get defenders on the back foot again.

I get lots of fouls on me, but it is no foul because I am physical. Because I don't go down, that is the problem as well. But I will keep playing my game. Why would I change? It's my game.

When you play the top sides you cannot afford to be as open as 4-4-2 can leave you. Consequently teams adapt their formation.

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.

I think that Sarri's formation and playing with a midfield three have been fundamental for me.

Moving to L.A. was hard. I had a career in Spain, and you have to forget your ego. I was a nobody again.

I started as a winger and played there for about six years but when I came to Arsenal they told me 'now you have to play me at the back' and everything just changed.

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.

Not many know this, but in training sessions, I like to play in the center-back position sometimes. I think I'm good at that position, and my father used to be a central defender. Some people don't realize that if you play in that position, you can better understand how the defender thinks.

At Rennes, I played more down the left wing, but also down the right and sometimes in midfield. At Dortmund, it was the same: I alternated wings. I don't have problems with the position I'll take up.

If you are playing on the left of a four-man midfield, there are a lot more defensive duties to do, so you can't find the times to keep attacking. But if you're on the left of a 4-3-3, I find that position really good as well.

With a line of six in the defence and then three in front of that, it's not always easy to find the spaces to score the goals.

I can play off the ball some, and that's fine with me as long as I can be out on the floor. But I am definitely more natural as a point guard than I am as a two guard.

In my youth-team days, I was always a left-winger who would stay close to the byline and put crosses in the box, so I could never cut inside and shoot. It was only when I joined Real Madrid and started playing in a more central position, and then on the right wing, that I suddenly realised I had a really dangerous weapon.

I'm enjoying my position on the left wing because I think I'm affecting the game more in terms of goals and assists. But I'm happy to play wherever I'm told.

In the past, you would have been classed as a sweeper if you were put in the middle of a three-man defence.

For two or three years I played on the wing, when I went to Boulogne in 2011, I started playing in the middle as a central midfielder.

It's a different playing style than at Monaco; there were two of us in midfield there, and here at Liverpool, there's three.

I've played both right-back and right wing, I can't really say if I am more comfortable in one or the other but both are fun positions for me to play.

I've always preferred a 4-3-3. It's a more fluid and dynamic system, and I think it plays to my strengths better.