Johan Cruyff Quotes

I always threw the ball in, because then if I got the ball back, I was the only player unmarked.

Of course you think about the goalkeeper you are facing before a game. You have to prepare yourself for the game and think about the weakness of the players you are up against.

If you have the ball, you must make the field as big as possible, and if you don't have the ball, you must make it as small as possible.

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.

The Bears treat offense as if it's bubonic plague.

To score points, you need a lot of consistent effort over the course of the game. If you're throwing it or running it in, it's not a big difference in terms of the score at all, obviously. But turnovers limit your scoring. That's the problem with turnovers.

I know one of my best qualities is to read the game for my players, is to read the opponent, is to identify every detail about the opponent.

I think anytime you play somebody on a yearly basis, you develop a history for what they like to do.

We have what we call a dictator offense. We dictate to defenses by making them do what we want them to do. And we do it by creating formations.

There's two sides to the game, and you have to do the ugly side as well. If you're getting beat, and you're conceding the goals that we're getting beaten by, then it's because you're not defending and shutting people down well enough.

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.

There's a decision each match. I decide how we are going to play, and it depends on the opposition 30 per cent, their structure, and 70 per cent is for us.

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

Whoever I'm playing against, I go in and try to stop their best scorer and try to get myself going on the offensive end.

The way you adapt and play against different teams and different styles is going to be important.

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

With Ronaldo, I think I've identified a few patterns; there are certain striking things. I will try to utilise this knowledge to my advantage.

Pep is a super coach! He is excellent. He is the best at analysing an opponent and the concept of a game. I don't know what impact he had on German football, but he left a mark on all of us at Bayern because of how he analysed and educated the players in each position and the way he taught us to play.

Whatever the coaches want to call and are comfortable with me me running, I'm always down.

You have to do the tactics to win games because if you have good organisation and know what to do, you'll know where the weaknesses are in the opponent.

I don't go into a game with specific targets. I don't pinpoint an opposing player before a match, trying to exploit a kind of weakness.

Our goal is to outplay the other team's defense every game - it doesn't matter who we're playing.

If teams keep playing us this way, it's going to be like this.

When you play a match, it is statistically proven that players actually have the ball 3 minutes on average ... So, the most important thing is: what do you do during those 87 minutes when you do not have the ball. That is what determines wether you're a good player or not.

Offensively, you do what you do best and you do it again and again. Defensively, you attack your opponent's strength.