Player Strengths Quotes

Lionel Messi is a wonderful player. Very skillful. Highly intelligent. He is not good in the air.

A guy like Malcolm who makes that type of quick, instinctive plays, that's one of his strong suits. I don't think it surprised any of us players because that's what his skill set is.

When you talk about forming an offensive identity, it's about, first, let's figure out what our players do best.

Ronaldo could play for Millwall, QPR, Doncaster Rovers or anyone and he'd score a hat-trick. I'm not sure Messi could do it. Ronaldo's got two feet, he's quick, he's good in the air and he's brave, though Messi's brave too of course. I just think Messi is a Barcelona player.

I've always believed that. I'm not a guy who comes in with an offensive system, and we try to fit guys to it. I think it goes the other way. 'Here's who we've got. Let's put them in the right spots where they can be productive.'

I have a pretty good idea of what makes NBA players great - especially at the different positions, and where the biggest problems lie that you have to address in defending those people.

My coaching philosophy? Determine your players talents and give them every weapon to get the most from those talents.

Every player has different skills.

I think people get caught up a little bit in the fact of finding things that people can't do instead of looking at the things that the player can do.

You definitely go through a stage, most coaches do, where you see a good player and you get enamored, you really like what the player does, but then when you put him into your system, it's not quite the same player that he was in another system. He has some strengths, but you cant utilize all those strengths. If you try to utilize all his strengths, you end up weakening a lot of other players who are already in your system.

When you a buy a player like Ozil, you know his strengths and Arsene Wenger knows, I think, where he is at his best.

It's one of those things: we've got guys that are very offensive and can take down anyone, and we've got guys that don't shoot at all but are very hard to take down. It's one of those things. You've got to decide what you're good at.

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.

I consider that part of my job as a pro: to know who you're up against and how the attacking players play, what kind of characteristics they have, their qualities, how they move, their preferred foot.

I think there are different kinds of quarterbacks, and if you look at any offense, there are different kind of quarterbacks, but you play to the strengths of whoever the quarterback is for the team.

I was certainly no Maradona. I was a very fast player. When I saw a space, I used it. When I went past somebody, he didn't catch up with me again. I was a player who came with a run-up. What Maradona could see in a small space, I saw over long distances.

Teams want fast players. That's not me. But I know my strengths.

As a coach, you have to play to how your team is built.

I'm a really smart player. If you tell me something, I get it quickly. If there is something wrong with my hitting, tell me what's wrong and I'll pick it up right away. That's the best thing I have going for me, my ability to listen to a coach and fix what I'm doing wrong.

As a coach you need to choose the characteristics your players can contribute. I don't think it's a good thing for a coach to analyse his team by looking for something he sees in other teams. He has to pay close attention to the characteristics his team have, and make the most of those.

I'm not flashy. I'll do nice things on the floor, but I'm not going to do the really impressive dunk or make the really impressive block. I think that's what fans enjoy most about coming to basketball games, but that's not what I provide night in, night out.

All you try to do in any system you incorporate is put players in their areas of strength and try to hide and minimize their weaknesses.

I'm different to someone like Jamie Vardy, who is a lot quicker than me but if he loses a yard he loses a large part of his game - whereas I never had the yard in the first place.

You've got to play to your players' talents.

Everyone wants to focus on what Ben Simmons can't do, which is shoot and try to rush him into being a range shooter. I think Simmons in Philadelphia has done a good job in focusing what he does great versus what he doesn't do as well.