Per Mertesacker Quotes

How do you mark Ronaldo? You try not to leave him alone and don't let him shoot on his right foot. As for Messi... you just make the sign of the cross!

The only way to stop Messi is to double mark him. One player to stay on him and the other to help out.

Against West Brom, you are up against very tall defenders, who are very strong, and you have to be strong, too, to keep the ball.

Tackling and playing well in space against any spread offense is very important.

At Ajax, they are strict when it comes to using the ball as a defender.

That's something you want to preach throughout the whole defense - getting the ball back to the offense.

I personally like the way John Stones plays because I think he's a great defender.

When there's pressure on the ball, you can go man-to-man on your striker; you've got the advantage because the ball pressure means it'll be a difficult pass to play.

Attacking is the tough part in football; defending is relatively easy.

We know it's impossible sometimes to have good defending against Cristiano Ronaldo but we want to keep the ball, with good possession, as then he can do nothing in attack.

The important thing to understand, from my point of view, is if the opponents break our lines and they are attacking our box, something has gone wrong, and it is me who has to fix it. But fouls in football are normal. You have to do it sometimes.

The best place to defend is in the opposition penalty box.

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.

One of biggest rules in football is you have to avoid crosses.

The thing that's always struck me about Coach Marinelli's defenses is how fast and aggressive they play.

Scoring lots of goals in Italy is much more difficult: they are experts in defending.

United's history was built on attacking football, which does not always mean that the team kept clean sheets or did not concede chances.

My view is that you show Messi one side or the other, and if he goes past you, he goes past you. But if he slips it through your legs, then you have to obstruct him and take the foul. Just don't ever let yourself be nutmegged.

Considering Messi's quality and everything he represents, I don't think I've seen him playing with a guy following him around the pitch the entire time with the sole purpose of not letting him play.

I prefer defensive midfielder because I know my job when I play there. More things are in front of you.

In football, you cannot only play because of your quality and talent. Defence is a must.

In the NBA, if you can't defend your position, they're going to go at you over and over again.

When I was in Germany I never played like this, so defensive - almost a left-back, but that is good for me because defensive work was something I missed in Germany.

That's part of my game: just running the wing, defending.

Tactically, I know how to play on one side even though I remain convinced that I can play better through the middle.