Game Reading Quotes

I've always looked up to John Terry; he's a massive defender and a rock. His one-v-one defending and reading of the game have really educated me. I watch a lot of clips of him.

The most important thing for a forward is speed of thought. Top players read the game.

Rather than opera, football is more like ballet or a chess game. You can really see it in a team like Arsenal, especially when Dennis Bergkamp was playing. He seemed to be able to read the game like a chessboard and knew where a player would be several seconds later and put the ball there for him.

I believe my strengths are my pace and reading of the game.

I know one of my best qualities is to read the game for my players, is to read the opponent, is to identify every detail about the opponent.

Players have to adapt nowadays, and if you have a good football brain, if you can read the game, you can manage it.

As I'm growing up, going into holding midfield, I'm watching Busquets quite a lot for Barcelona. The way he controls the game, his reading of it, technically, defensively - everything about him cuts him out above the rest. I'm really enjoying watching him.

Over the years I think I have developed a better understanding of being a goalkeeper - and I mean on and off the pitch. I mean how to deal with certain situations, how to prepare myself for games, how to read the game. I think I needed to leave Arsenal to do that.

Experienced no-limit Texas Hold'em players understand the importance of reading flop texture.

The way I play, it's very much more a mental game than a physical game. I'm looking for space and where are players leaving space. Defensively, where are we at numerical disadvantages? Do I shift more to the left because they have more players on their right side? It's about reading the game before the game happens.

Anyone who wants to be a centre-half would have to say that John Terry is a role model. Every centre-half in the game would agree with that. It is the way he leads the team and the way he reads the game.

Busquets reads everything. Players like Busquets or Xabi Alonso in midfield have the capacity to read the whole game.

I give a lot of instruction in training. It's difficult for me to do the same in matches, so I need guys on the pitch to read the game, to understand what we want.

I try to anticipate the ball well. That's something that's helped me since when I was a kid. Just learning to anticipate and read the game well. That's helped me. When I moved over to Spain and I was 15 I was playing with big guys who were 22 years to 28 years old and I was 15 so I couldn't beat them with power. I had to beat them with touch shots and variety and anticipation and all of those things. I learned a lot when I was over there.

When you're playing a good team, not too many point guards want to go one on one. When you're playing a not-so-good team, teams that are fighting to make the playoffs, guys are going to want to try and get their own. It's just a different read of each team.

Jamie Carragher was someone who I looked at as to how to organise, how to defend and how composed he was, how good he was at reading the games and he was one I looked up to.