Jerome Boateng Quotes

I would always treat my attacking game as the more natural part. With defence, you have to get yourself in positions to understand the game and understand situations and that might not be as natural a thing.

I have a unique ability to predict the flight of the ball, and my teammates have a unique ability to find me.

If my play is not to run and chase the ball, if my play is to stay backside, then I've got to stay backside. I've got to be disciplined. I can't run across the field and chase stuff that's not mine.

Just hearing somebody's voice in center field, it helps our guards out to know where they need to go, when the screen is coming, when the back door is coming, when the flare is coming. When different things like that happen and we're talking, it helps us all out in the long run.

I'm really trying to work on my defensive positioning.

There's a lot of things I can get better at as an individual, knowing where defenders are, having a better awareness. Those are things I can work on.

Over the years, you get better at timing because you've been through the situations thousands of times. The ball goes over your head; he passes you on the right, left. Eventually, you just know what you have to do.

If I get my teammates going early, then my shots usually open up. Come off pick and roll and make the pocket pass on the first one. Then it's like OK, does the defender step up now? Then next time I may have the layup. So, just playing the game like that. Reading and reacting and not thinking too much.

I try to have a picture when I receive the ball and know where everyone is. That's one of the most important things for a midfielder.

Before, sometimes if the ball was played over my head I wouldn't know where I was but now I feel a lot more comfortable. Sometimes I would be going forward when it really wasn't the right time to go too, but now I'm picking my moments better.

To be a great NFL player, you have to know what your opponent is doing, not just opposite your position but what they're doing all over the field. All the contingencies.

You're always at war with the guy on the other bench. You pick up their patterns. That's what I got the most out of this year. I know what other coaches like to do.

I think that's part of building your team is trying to anticipate where your team is going and to a certain extent where, especially defensively because you have to react to what they put on the field. Defensively you have to be able to defend those things.

I've won plenty of games by knowing when to take out my pitcher; whom to replace him with; or how to place my infield or outfield to defend properly against the opposing hitter.

I get a kick out of watching a team defense me. A player moves two steps in one direction and I hit it two steps the other way. It goes right by his glove and I laugh.

If you're inside the box and a cross is coming, sometimes you need, as we say in Spanish, to smell the intuition, to smell where the cross is going.

I know when I step into midfield I have to sharpen my feet up and be more aware of what's around me, at centre back it's more about timing, positioning and communication.

Anytime you're a defensive player and your eyes aren't on your key, you're going to have an issue.

When we're playing, I really shape my body to receive the ball - even before it gets to me.

In this league you might have a quarterback within your division that you're worried about running all over the place, the next week it's a running back, so to be able to have multiple answers for every situation is probably a benefit for everybody.

The game's just slowed down for me a little bit and I'm able to read the defenses and see how they're playing me.

When we lose the ball, I don't want to win it back directly. I act smarter now, have better anticipation, and also start earlier when somebody tries to lob the ball over me.

Before I receive the ball I already know how that play is developing so I'm able to give rhythm to that play.

We work on our set pieces for every opponent. It's a moment of the game that requires a lot of hard work, defensive and offensively. We try to invest our time in set pieces.

I like playing just outside of my own penalty box, the player who receives the ball and organises the game.