Johan Cruyff Quotes

The most important thing is to help the team to come in front of the goal with one-two passes, I drop down, or I give them space, because for defenders, it's always difficult to have a false nine because they don't have a direct player against them, so they don't know exactly what to do.

As a winger, you want to get at defenders and make it hard for them. Instead of them going forwards, they have to defend against you.

If the spaces open up in the attack, then of course I'm willing to take it because I love to get involved; I love to get crosses in. I love to do combinations and just bring a different aspect to our game.

Football is about having the best offensive play possible. I always like to play offensive football, and nobody will convince me otherwise.

When you play soccer, most of the time you got to get the ball moving, but once you get into that attacking third you gotta' be creative, you gotta' let your talent take over.

When you are playing with a few players in the pocket, it doesn't leave me isolated. I have a bit more space to work and be higher up the pitch.

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.

Whether a player rotates more or less depends on his form and his position. It's not the same for a center back as it is for a winger. Every player is different.

Anytime you get good service to the box, it's always great as an attacking player because it gives you more opportunities to score.

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.

When teams play good football, it tends to create chances for the striker.

Wherever I am on the field, I'm just trying to be an attacking presence and constantly be on their back four and try to make a difference in that way. So it doesn't matter where I play for my club.

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.

As long as everyone does their part - the attackers score the goals, and the defenders keep the clean sheets - then you can't go too wrong.

I like entertaining football but, at the same time, you can't concede goals. That's a tricky balance to find.

Any striker like me that likes to run in behind, they could play with Thierry.

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.

My template for everything is organisation. With the ball you have to know the movement patterns, the rotation, the fluidity and positioning of the team. When we have the football everybody's a player.

You have to attack to get corners, no? Winning by scoring strategic goals doesn't bother me - it's part of the game.

I get a lot of front ball in a position that, normally, the opponent's defense is making the move outwards, and our attackers are getting in.

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

I want to know what coverage it is every single time. I want to line up and be able to read what the defense is trying to do to me so I can get open.

I got Neil Walker now as my new second baseman. He's great. He looks comfortable there. He knows what he's doing. That's the second baseman you want to play with.

Harry Kane is a very complicated player to stop.

Usually, when I'm in the 3-5-2, it's at the end of the game, in the 80th minute, where I'm really just attacking.