Virgil van Dijk Quotes

We are all totally committed as elite athletes. To think that pushing people around and bullying them is the best way to get results out of them is just ludicrous.

Knowing his coach likes him is more important to a player than anything else. To me, it was important to be able to chew out a player for screwing up and for him to accept it because he knew I liked him anyway.

It's amazing the things you hear from your players talking to them one on one. I never embarrassed a player, I spoke with him alone.

Sometimes you need to encourage them sometimes even to comfort them, let them know I trust them. Sometimes you need to tell the truth, being more aggressive. That's management. I need to put the players in the best possible conditions.

Sometimes I was wrong about my players. Sometimes I want more and more from them; sometimes I am so demanding, but they showed me how good they are.

It's important for me to exalt my players in their strengths and to try and cover their weakness, no?

Mourinho is known for getting under players' skins, tickling and goading better performances out of them.

But I still think it's part of the skill of being a coach or manager - to know who responds to what. And some players do respond to a rollicking. If it needs to be done, you have to do it. As a player, that wasn't necessarily me.

Players' moods change on a daily basis, so it depends how you find your players, and up to you to get the best out of them.

People talk about the hair dryer and all this with Sir Alex Ferguson. What was really great about him, whatever happened in a game, he would spend whatever minutes it took him to get this out of this system and say whatever needed to be said. Once he said, 'Get your bath,' that was it. We knew that it would never return.

I think coaches who don't coddle but praise players when they deserve it get the best results.

I'm not a player who needs telling every day in training 'you're brilliant, you're this, you're that'... but it's always nice to hear comments from the manager and people around that you're doing well.

A lot of coaches are very intense, which is good once you are working, but you don't want that all the time.

I think it's pretty unique to see a coach adjust to the talent he has and maximize the abilities of players he has and help them keep growing.

Increasingly, it becomes evident that managing a ball club is a psychiatrist's job. In a short series, the mental attitude of the combatants is everything.

I am more open than other coaches with all of my players.

I think the coaches have to play a big role in the players' development.

Our message to parents is to focus on the process the child engages in, such as trying hard or focusing on the task - what specific things they're doing rather than, 'You're so smart. You're so good at this.' Although it's never too late to change, what you do early matters.

With Marco Silva, the way he coaches players, he has that knowledge: he wants the best out of you, basically. He wants something out of you all the time, and having seen him work in a short space of time, it's only going to improve.

Pellegrini gave me back the joy of playing football. He is like Arsene Wenger: someone who likes to joke, someone who likes to talk and take an interest in your life.

I think public criticism of players can go one of two ways: either the players will want to raise a proverbial middle finger at their manager and prove them wrong, or the squad will go within themselves and performances will deteriorate.

Man-management is my biggest asset, to help the players enjoy themselves and be better than they already are.

When you want to be a good coach you have to have the full package, that's for sure. I don't believe that you always have to punish or instil fear into players like the old days.

Getting the best out of your best players gets the best out of the team.

Arsene knows what he wants and knows how to get the best out of you - that is why he gets such an impressive response from his players.