Defensive Solidity Quotes

Manchester United are always a team that try to play football, try to play football from the back.

It is always tough, always difficult playing against Klopp's teams.

When I joined QPR in March 2010 we were rock bottom and heading for League One. We conceded too many and didn't score enough, which was a recipe for relegation.

Maybe Klopp is the best manager in the world at creating teams who attack the back four with so many players, from almost anywhere on the pitch. They have an intensity with the ball and without the ball, and it is not easy to do that.

Once Liverpool go ahead, they are dangerous because it becomes hard to find space to break them down, especially if you are not playing all that brilliantly.

United's history was built on attacking football, which does not always mean that the team kept clean sheets or did not concede chances.

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

Charlton are a team who play well on the ball, but they found it hard to break us down, they didn't really have an out and out chance in front of our goal.

We try and play football in a positive way. Any team has to be defensively organised, but you have to look at the attributes of the players and play to their strengths.

You see how Spanish, Italians, Portuguese play football. I don't say they are perfect, I say English football has a few things to learn from them in the same way they have a lot of things to learn from English football.

When you play in the Premier League, say you're playing against a lower-end team, they set up to defend all the time, they set up to block you off. But when you play in the Champions League, all the other teams are used to winning every week, so it's more of an open game, it's more attacking, end-to-end.

I think Sassuolo are a serious club who play great football, keeping the ball, and are almost Spanish in style.

Pochettino likes to play from the back, with the buildup, have the ball.

I don't say we are a defensive team. I say we are a strong team in defensive terms, but at the same time lacking sufficient fluidity in attack because that will take time to come.

Having a lot of attacking players on the field and a good balance at the back is the foundation of victory.

Some big teams prefer to be very strong defensively and have two, three, four counter-attacking players.

It is well-documented that Bournemouth like to play football. I think I can give them a slightly different dimension when the ball goes into the box.

Busquets is a sitting midfield player who breaks up play, intercepts, passes it very quickly and is intelligent. That's what he is. He's not much more than that, but he gets a lot of praise for it. Whereas Eric Dier does a similar job, but sometimes gets loads of criticism for it.

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.

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.

There is no Benitez 'method.' We try to be more solid in defense without losing the quality in attack.

I come from a Napoli team who scored 104 goals. Do you think I'm going to be hyper-defensive with Real Madrid? A team that creates chances and is great in possession is not defensive.

I think if Tottenham are going to be top four side, the fans and the club will need to get away from the philosophy of 'pretty football', that's got to go.

English football is changing: the champions don't play a 'typical' English style, for example. But in general, it's quicker than in Spain: more counter-attacks, more open, more direct.

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