Ernesto Valverde Quotes

When you play Argentina and Messi, there are several ways to limit his impact, at least.

Pep Guardiola saw me as a central player in his system, which my style of play fit into perfectly.

In my time at Milan, the club played with a 4-3-1-2 formation, and I was the player behind the two strikers. At Real, I play behind three. There is a greater defensive obligation, but I try to work around the area.

It is harder to win Premier League games playing 4-4-2 without having players of the quality the top teams have.

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.

It was Thomas Tuchel's first season as coach and I played centrally always. The whole team had a great year, one that I enjoyed a lot. Our style has changed a bit, from trying to score within five seconds to a more calm and in some regard more educated style of play. We try to find the right moment - and then we explode.

The best way to stop Messi is when you play with 11 men and then you can double mark him, one player to stay on him and the other to help out. If it is 11 against 10 then you have almost no chance of stopping him.

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.

We're trying to win football games, and whoever we feel like gives us the best chance is who's going to play behind center.

I had to go step by step to get used to the training and to the system of Pep Guardiola.

At Inter Milan, I agreed to play on the wing and didn't like it.

It is possible to stop Messi. Teams do it when he plays for Argentina. But the Barcelona Messi is different.

Messi never wants to be subbed off, but it's my task to take care of him.

You cannot give the ball to Messi all the time.

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

A midfielder should be able to play several positions.

For me, there are no 'between players' in football. For me, there are clear positions and clear characteristics for all players.

I experienced how Pep Guardiola worked every day. He had football on his mind round the clock: 'What system does the opponent like to play? How do I want to set up my team, who do I want in which position?'

You need two or three players who can do that - play behind the striker, on the right wing, the left wing... striker, maybe. If we have those, it's good for the team.

The most dangerous area is the centre, which has to be either attacked or defended in football, and it's the same in chess.

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.

When you're Scottish you're brought up to play anywhere and it's fine to play for one or two games but you need to play in your right position, especially on the back of scoring nine goals for Hull City.

I came from Ajax where you play 4-3-3 and as a winger they didn't want you to defend.

United are about attacking football, and everything else has to takes its place behind that.

I've become accustomed to playing against four defenders throughout my career, but in Italy, I have to play against five.