Nemanja Matic Quotes

I started as a winger and played there for about six years but when I came to Arsenal they told me 'now you have to play me at the back' and everything just changed.

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.

For United, I'm more likely to be left wing of a four-man midfield with only two centre-mids, so it's a bit more difficult for me to maybe make those runs to get in and score those goals when I've got to think about my defensive duties as well.

Maybe modern tactics mean that making the switch from defence to midfield is easier. Many years ago, full backs were more limited - you were just supposed to defend, and it didn't matter if you could get forward too.

If I don't get the service or if I don't the ball in the box, where I want it, I start drifting into midfield. I go and look for the ball. I try to be important for the team in other areas.

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

Typically, a position change is more for instructional league and winter time. It's just a more relaxed situation. A player can make some mistakes and learn from them. That's the proper way to go about a position change, for me.

I remember that, often, Mike Phelan would just nip down to the touchline for a message to one or two players. It was usually just a tactical thing. But when Sir Alex comes to the touchline, all the players know that it's serious stuff.

On a tactical level the defensive midfielder in a 4-3-3 formation is just about the most demanding position there is.

Roy Hodgson destroyed me. He made me play in the centre of midfield.

Ancelotti moved me to a new position and helped me raise my game.

As a midfielder, when you have sealed things up at the back, my job is to provide the ammunition for the strikers and forwards, to create opportunities for them.

I wouldn't want to play as left forward if I normally play right-back.

To play as an anchor man you have to be extremely disciplined and a lot of the time you're attracted to the ball but can't go there because if you don't get there or it breaks down there is a hole.

I'd say I was an attacking midfielder, and if you are going to be one of the best, you have to score goals and create them.

I stay in the middle and my team-mates can go to attack.

A midfielder should be able to play several positions.

I was an attacking full-back but was told by Hope Powell to just sit back when we played U.S.A. in the 2007 World Cup. It's hard to rein yourself in, but the team comes first.

In the English 4-4-2 you have to change your mentality from a winger to a left midfielder, having to help your full-back.

Once I reached about 14 or 15, I started to steady myself and get into a midfield role and carried that on until I was 17. Then I dropped into right-back, and I have played there ever since.

I like Southgate as a manager, what he brings. He always wants the ball and adapts to the players.

Muller is part No. 7 and part No. 9, a second striker. But in Ancelotti's system, there is no room for that type of player.

I've played as a striker all my life. To play on the right or the left is always difficult.

For a long time at Blackburn and at Fulham last season, I was playing on the right wing. I've never seen myself as a right-winger. I could play there and come inside and try to create.

I like to play attacking, like a winger, or an attacking midfielder, so it depends on the coach, where he's looking at me for which position.