Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Quotes

The teams that defend well are as important as those that attack well. If you don't concede goals it is much easier to win but it is all about having balance.

When you play the top sides you cannot afford to be as open as 4-4-2 can leave you. Consequently teams adapt their formation.

At Tottenham, we are just bombing on as wing-backs, but sometimes on the international stage, where there is so much quality, you need to be more careful about the distance between yourself and the right-sided centre-half.

I don't like getting pinned back with a line of four in midfield. You risk losing too much space.

I coach defending an awful lot but I don't think too many teams in the Premier League or in the world of football actually coach defending anymore, certainly not the full-backs.

What Liverpool do really well is they try to get you inside but then close you down.

When teams train now, it is about what they do with the ball and, if they lose it, how quickly they press to win it back.

Defending isn't just about tackling and heading, it's also about getting the ball down and playing - starting the attack from the back.

Rafa Benitez was keen on defending - all dropping back together if you lose the ball.

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.

In England and Germany, perhaps, there is more of a focus on the physical side of the game, in breaking down the opposition's play, especially against the lower placed sides.

Most teams - whether they like it or not against Manchester City - you're going to find yourself quite often penned in your own half.

United are capable of setting up a low block and making it difficult, but they're also capable of coming out and pressing high.

Tactically, Italians are very strong. They are a lot into tactics: how to defend, when you lose the ball, where will you be?

The last thing you want as a striker is the opposing team putting all 10 players behind the ball.

When you get lots of players up front, sometimes a counter-attack can take you by surprise and lead to a chance for the opposition.

In football, there has always been this idea of having a left-footer and a right-footer in central defence.

It is vital to maintain possession and to win it back as soon as possible, because if we win it high up, then the opposition has to run 70 metres.

I always tried to defend high up the pitch, to be in the opposition's half and play the game there.

Against Chelsea, you will have periods in the game when you are right up against it, when they keep the ball. They are pretty solid the way they set their team up.

There are a lot of teams that don't want to play, that only want to defend against Barcelona, and that makes it difficult. We're always looking for the open space. A lot of times we'll face six defenders and four midfielders.

I often felt as a player in a 4-4-2, you end up being outnumbered in midfield and chasing the ball, so as a manager I liked wingbacks to push forward; it gives the midfield player on the ball three or four options.

If someone is going to spend a whole game marking you, then there may be games when I will have to sacrifice myself for the team and take them away and create space for a team-mate.

It is very tough to beat an English team. The type of football they play is only in the Premier League. They defend as though their lives depend on it. And they are very successful.