Franck Ribery Quotes

I've always preferred a 4-3-3. It's a more fluid and dynamic system, and I think it plays to my strengths better.

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

I hate false nines.

The best managers out there at the moment are Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho but they are at other clubs - Real Madrid and Barcelona.

It's unbelievable. I changed the way Barcelona played. Now, Spain have had to change.

I don't really like all these tactical systems people talk about: 3-5-2, 4-3-3, and all that.

Everything I did on the left I had to learn in a 4-4-2 system, it wasn't natural. To collect the ball on my wrong foot.

I prefer playing in a 4-3-3.

Iceland won't change. No matter who they play, they're 4-4-2.

If I watch big games like the Champions League on TV then I'm definitely watching what different centre-backs are doing in certain situations.

Most of the clubs who have had success against Barcelona have relied on a highly organised and disciplined defence.

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.

As I'm growing up, going into holding midfield, I'm watching Busquets quite a lot for Barcelona. The way he controls the game, his reading of it, technically, defensively - everything about him cuts him out above the rest. I'm really enjoying watching him.

Everyone thinks I'm looking for attacking football all the time. But the foundation is how you defend - keep a clean sheet, and you have a decent chance to win a game of football.

It's not science; it's common sense: it's playing the right players in the right positions for the style of football you want to implement in a specific game.

Usually, when I'm in the 3-5-2, it's at the end of the game, in the 80th minute, where I'm really just attacking.

Every striker is stronger when we play with wingers.

I think the No. 9 will always be in football. You need the proper No. 9s in football; that's my opinion.

The position I am playing at right wing-back, I know I can score goals there.

I must have just dreamed that about Liverpool playing 3-4-3. What do people think that was, a bit of luck? A British coach playing 3-4-3? A foreign coach doing that would be a tactical genius. I imagine people think I fell into that system through a stroke of luck or something... it took some thought. I didn't just throw them out there.

There's a famous saying: "If you pass the square ball in your own defensive third it must not be intercepted."

I know how hard it will be to follow the best manager ever, but the opportunity to manage Manchester United isn't something that comes around very often and I'm really looking forward to taking up the post next season.

Ask José Mourinho, he wouldn't know a thing about me, my sport - he knows football, and to get to high levels you have to be insane, nothing else means anything.

Never throw into double coverage.

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