Tactical Evolution Quotes

I haven't seen a new football play since I was in high school. You have just so many holes in a line and you have eleven men playing, and there's only so many ways you can go through those holes, and those ways have been used for forty, fifty years.

I played Zidane throughout my career, and for many players you reach a point where you learn lessons on how to handle them. But from the first match I played against him to the last, Zidane would find different ways to beat me.

Maybe modern tactics mean that making the switch from defence to midfield is easier. Many years ago, full backs were more limited - you were just supposed to defend, and it didn't matter if you could get forward too.

Perhaps I am influenced by philosophies like the one at Chelsea which was 'If it isn't broken, change it' which saw us win three league titles in five years playing three different formations and tactical strategies so that the opposition could never keep up with our evolution at the time.

We've proven to be quite flexible and adept in the way that we've changed what was the original pattern of air activities into something that's now very focused on the battlefield.

One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.

I spent the best part of 20 years trying to stop people like Chris Waddle from playing. Now I'm convinced that good touch and loads of movement are the way forward.

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 when a new manager who has a specific way of playing comes to any league, he doesn't think about adapting but rather looks for ways to slowly implement his style so it can be developed for years to come.

I've done a good job at Bayern, with Guardiola, and I have evolved a lot tactically.

My style of play has always been 'Guardiola style,' so I've not had too many problems. At the same time, he helps you to evolve and to change little things, because it's obviously not exactly the same style of play as at Bilbao.

In any case, the bayonet isn't as important as it used to be. It's more usual now to go into the attack with hand-grenades and your entrenching tool. The sharpened spade is a lighter and more versatile weapon - not only can you get a man under the chin, but more to the point, you can strike a blow with a lot more force behind it. That's especially true if you can bring it down diagonally between the neck and the shoulder, because then you can split down as far as the chest. When you put a bayonet in, it can stick, and you have to give the other man a hefty kick in the guts to get it out.

He foresaw the platooning that managers like Casey Stengel used years before it happened. He told me I had to be a switch-hitter if I was going to play.

I'm trying to evolve with how football is going.

They're fighting for the championship, that's not a coincidence: I believe they have developed as a team. They've become much stronger, the squad is more balanced. And they still play the way Arsenal always play. They want to have the ball, they like playing it short, and they have outstanding individuals.

Should we go back to huddling? Should we go back to putting all these tight ends in there and have 250 yards a game? It doesn't win anymore. So should we do it because that's what the people before us did? No.