Frank Rijkaard Quotes

Scottish football doesn't suit me perfectly, how I want to play football.

Guardiola and I have the same idea of football.

Cruyff defined a philosophy and a style of how we had to play: positional play, type of players, the profile of the coaches, even.

Barcelona have a unique approach to the game based on specific types of footballers playing together as one.

At Barcelona, it wasn't about winning all the time; it was first about how to win.

I would prefer to play for and against an attacking team, but I am now used to playing against defensive teams.

You can't play man to man against Liverpool and out-pass them. You have to keep your shape and stop them.

The tactical way of Pep is the most incredible I have ever seen. When he was at Barcelona, that was their best team, I think.

Arsene Wenger's style of play is the sort of style the Chilean national team has. Therefore, I am used to it.

We try and play football in a positive way. Any team has to be defensively organised, but you have to look at the attributes of the players and play to their strengths.

Cruyff's idea was, quite literally, to play football - nothing more, nothing less. His idea of how football should be played was based not on controlling the opponent, but on the ball and the game.

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.

I love this style: get the ball back quickly, then play possession with so many combinations. When you watch that, you get the feeling you want to go out on the pitch and play football with your friends and just enjoy yourself. City and Barcelona are great examples.

I've played under different managers, different styles, and most of my career, I was asked to play long.

Things change, although I believe that certain principles - of attacking, entertaining football - should always be protected.

My style of play has always been 'Guardiola style,' so I've not had too many problems. At the same time, he helps you to evolve and to change little things, because it's obviously not exactly the same style of play as at Bilbao.

The most important thing in Guardiola's theory is to play football, and this always stays the same. The basic idea is always the same, but different opponents offer different space which you can use to play in.

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

When you're a kid you just think about where you are going to be to put yourself in a position for the next scoring chance. But as you develop, you start to do things that may not catch the eye of the normal football watcher, the dropping back, the closing down.

What do folk always say about Arsenal? They can pass you to death.

If people feel 4-4-2 is the way forward in international football, they'll have to wait until I'm out of a job.

It actually took me a year to learn how to play running back - to understand what they were doing defensively and then what our guys were doing every single play.

I am a believer in passing the ball on the ground, I was lucky to be part of teams like that at Arsenal, with the French national team and with Monaco and at Barcelona. I know you can win in other ways, but I believe that is the way football should be played.

You pressure, you want possession, you want to attack. Some teams can't or don't pass the ball. What are you playing for? What's the point? That's not football. Combine, pass, play. That's football - for me, at least.

I think we've got a lot players in the squad who are more suited to European football at the moment.