Jose Mourinho Quotes

All coaches say, 'We want to control the game. We want the ball. Blah, blah, blah, blah,' but it's impossible to have the ball all the time.

I've never seen a Barca without control of the game. I've never seen a Barca that doesn't have the ball and lets the opposition attack all the time.

You will never run more than the ball. The players that don't lose the ball are the most important in the team, and good players decide the game.

I think time of possession is overrated, unless you are scoring.

If you play on possession, you don't have to defend, because there's only one ball

In five years I have never had a match where my team has had less possession than the opponents.

I'm a coach who likes to have the ball, but what I really think is, 'How can you be in charge of the game?' I think, but maybe I am the only one, that the defensive process can take care of the game. Why is that? Because teams wait to defend. If you create something where you go to defend, to steal the ball where you want, it's different.

The little bit of my Brazilian side in Azzurri is perhaps to play more with the ball on the ground and have the tranquility to hold the ball. The idea is to have more control of the game.

My teams have always been dominant about having the ball but having the ball to create opportunities. That's always been the clear way of my work.

The important thing for me is we want to keep the ball, we want to have the ball because we are Arsenal football club.

When you've got the ball 65-70% of the time, it's a football death for the other team...It's death by football.

In football, you don't hold on to the ball just to hold on to the ball. When you have it you need to be dangerous, create opportunities and score goals. And when you don't, you make sure the opposition doesn't.

Busquets reads everything. Players like Busquets or Xabi Alonso in midfield have the capacity to read the whole game.

I like teams to control and dominate the ball so the players are hungry for the ball.

Technical players make the game easy. They have a view of the pitch different from other players. They put the last pass for the strikers. They are the players that lose two or three balls in a year.

I like to be in contact with the ball, have possession, to play.

I'd say my main quality is keeping the ball and my passing.

If you want to play dominant football, you need to get the ball, think fast, and play quick combinations in small spaces.

Every footballer enjoys having the ball at their feet. There are times in training you find yourself without the ball. I enjoy that side of it as well. If we can spend more time working with the ball then everyone will enjoy it.

This is one of the challenges we have: knowing that playing without the ball is just as important as when you have the ball.

In the end, it's like that: The more I possess the ball, the more dominant we play, and the more often we win.

You watch Silva, and he almost never gives the ball away. He is always looking, thinking, making the right calls.

We need the ball even to defend; that's our objective: having the ball and having it as far as possible from our goal as possible.

I prefer getting a lot of the ball.

The archetypal No. 10 is a skillful player who is more interested in being in possession than tracking to get the ball back.