Opponent Manipulation Quotes

When you're in the Championship, you try and move the opponent around a bit and pull players into positions they don't want to be in.

If you're up against a smart opponent, make him think himself to death.

In football, when I break the line of scrimmage, I see a player in front of me, a defender, and already in my head I'm thinking, 'I'm going to make him miss.' So I'm already looking at the next defender like, 'OK, how can I set this guy up to get him out of position, too?'

My game plan - doesn't matter who I play - is to play on my terms, to control as much as I can, to try to get control of the centre of the court, to try to dictate and make them move, to be their director rather than letting them impose their game on me.

Nothing drives your opponents more crazy than being utterly reasonable. And nothing makes demonizing or delegitimizing your opponents easier than letting them shriek unreasonable things for you. The Republicans need to get back to being the party that elicits unreasonable shrieking from their opponents. Not the other way around.

I try to get in people's heads. My job is to get the ball, so if I'm talking trash to an O-lineman or quarterback or receiver, and they start thinking about me, that's good, because they aren't thinking about the game anymore.

The more irrational you make your opponent, the more control you have over him in the ring.

Every day I am learning how to trouble my opponents on the left, how best to cause them problems with my movement. But I would still like to be capable of taking up more positions.

I seldom reraise before the flop no matter what my hand is. By so doing, I'm able to disguise the strength of my hand and can trap unsuspecting opponents who interpret my smooth call as a sign of weakness.

I know that there are coaches in the Bundesliga that have said in team meetings, 'Provoke Xhaka; he will eventually go ballistic.' I think that is sad. That, in my view, has nothing to do with football.

Part of my job leading the line for Watford is to occupy centre-halves - by that I mean those battles with Huth, say, to try to win headers when the ball is played forward. But I also look to bring centre-halves out of position to the flanks and make space for my team-mates in the middle.

Many people don't understand ring control. They think they do until they're against someone who really understands how to set traps, how to create holes in the octagon that they fall into.