Naby Keita Quotes

My mental approach is totally different. My coach predicated everything on defense. He always talked about defense, defense, defense. I took it to heart that if you play defense, you can take the heart from an offensive player.

Really what we've done is establish a tradition in Carolina of playing defense.

I probably visualize myself, the shots I'm going to get in the game, how I'm going to play defense, what we have to do to stop the other team's best player, what it's going to take out of me, the whole aspect of the game.

When I'm on the field, I'm locked in, focused on my job. I try to have a positive play and try to get points on the board.

Once I'm at the training ground, I'm focused, preparing for the next game.

That's how you get better on defense; not just 'oh, man, my guy beat me,' but you have to think about, 'okay, my man beat me, so I either have to pick up the next man, or I'm going to give somebody a foul.

In high school, you don't play much defense. It's mostly offense. In college, it's vice versa, and that's what I tried to do.

Defense is so important for helping your team win games and for the game in general.

Defense, for me, is where I really love to put work in most. Defense is, in my mind, what wins games.

When we are organised on the pitch, it is easier to play in defense.

In '82 Brazil showed that you can't win the World Cup without a solid defense.

When I step on that basketball court, I'm thinking about basketball, I'm thinking about winning - but there's so much that goes into thought about how I'm going to open this game up to others. It's so much more than just basketball.

If we don't start playing better on defense, it's going to be hard. We can't just sit there and win shootouts.

Just try to focus one game at a time, not worry about points or anything like that. Worry about playing the right way and see what comes of it.

As a player, you have to focus on the match and not too much on the surroundings.

To win games, we need to be focused for 95 minutes. If not, you always pay in football.

A lot of guys are offensive minded, which is good at some points and times but bad at others - at lots of others. I wish I could say I want everybody to play defense as hard as I do. It's not a reality.

As players, we have to concentrate with what happens on the pitch, not off it.

Even though I am not going to coach in the future, if I had to pass on a recommendation, it would be to base your game on having a strong defence.

It's a mystery coming out each and every game to try and figure out how a team is going to guard me and how I'm going to dictate how my team wins.

The beginning of everything is our defensive organisation. The clean sheet is always the first objective that we have in the game. Always.

You have to communicate with your teammates; you have to be on a string. There are a lot of things that go into a play. And then you are guarding a two or three, which is probably one of their better players on the team, so you're focused on them.

You need to be 100% focused all match long against Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Scouting is important. You just want to know whom you are playing against and how to play them well within the team's defense.

You don't want your opponent to score. You don't want your guy to score and once you get better at it, you get used to it, it becomes a mindset. You just try to do it every game.