Wojciech Szczesny Quotes

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.

When someone like Lukaku gets you in the position where he's holding you off it is key to try and nick it in front of him.

I would prefer to play for and against an attacking team, but I am now used to playing against defensive teams.

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.

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

That's the only way you can stop a guy like Cam Newton. Hit him. He's unstoppable, so whenever he does try to run like a running back, you got to punish him.

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

I like to get the ball down and play, but I can always get stuck in and hold my own.

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

Smaller players in the Premier League are very good at using their bodies and that's what I will continue to do.

The important thing to understand, from my point of view, is if the opponents break our lines and they are attacking our box, something has gone wrong, and it is me who has to fix it. But fouls in football are normal. You have to do it sometimes.

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.

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.

Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso was always bemused by our enthusiasm for tackling, because he saw it as the last resort.

What interests Chiellini and I is not conceding goals. We're able to create chances and it makes us happy when we take them.

I like the Klopp mentality but at the same time, I like the Pep culture about football because always we need intensity with and without the ball.

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.

When I've watched teams that play with five at the back and wing-backs, I've looked at their starting positions and positions out of possession because that comes a little bit more unnaturally to me.

I didn't really adapt to Scottish football well, but I enjoyed my time there. The physical nature and the pace of the game was a big thing, and many of the teams defended really deep against Celtic so there was not so much space to run in behind. That's a big part of my game, so that was one thing as well.

People say that Rooney could have been like Lionel Messi, a more prolific goalscorer who dribbles past opponents more. But they are different characters. You will never see Messi snapping around the heels of an opponent to win the ball back deep in his own half. Wayne does that all the time, and sometimes that enthusiasm will count against him.

I like to play attacking football, but I think the big difference is that we expect a lot more from our strikers, to do more pressing and to keep compact. We like to play a high line defensively and press the ball.

I like to get physical on defense. I like to get up on a guy as much as possible. I actually need to calm down, though.

When I played, I was an English-style centre-half. Always with my heart, always with my fighting spirit.

Italy do not only defend; they can attack, too. They have attacking qualities, and they create chances.

You can't tap somebody in the helmet and say, 'Go be physical.' If you're not physical, you can't play physical, and that's a big part of what we believe in.