Soccer is simple, but it is difficult to play simple.
If you can't win, make sure you don't lose.
Playing football is very simple, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is.
It is better to fail with your own vision than to fail with another man's vision.
Technique is not being able to juggle a ball 1000 times. Anyone can do that by practicing. Then you can work in the circus. Technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right foot of your team mate.
Every disadvantage has its advantage.
YOU NEED BOTH QUALITY AND RESULTS. RESULTS WITHOUT QUALITY IS BORING; QUALITY WITHOUT RESULTS IS MEANINGLESS.
Football is a game of mistakes. Whoever makes the fewest mistakes wins.
Every trainer talks about movement, about running a lot. I say don't run so much. Football is a game you play with your brain. You have to be in the right place at the right moment, not too early, not too late.
Players that aren't true leaders but try to be, always bash other players after a mistake. True leaders on the pitch already assume others will make mistakes.
If you have the ball, you must make the field as big as possible, and if you don't have the ball, you must make it as small as possible.
There’s only one moment in which you can arrive in time. If you’re not there, you’re either too early or too late.
We must make sure their worst players get the ball the most. You'll get it back in no time.
You have got to shoot, otherwise you can't score.
If you play on possession, you don't have to defend, because there's only one ball
When you play a match, it is statistically proven that players actually have the ball 3 minutes on average ... So, the most important thing is: what do you do during those 87 minutes when you do not have the ball. That is what determines wether you're a good player or not.
If I wanted you to understand it, I would have explained it better.
To win you have to score one more goal than your opponent
Someone who has juggled the ball in the air during a game, after which four defenders of the opponent get the time to run back, that's the player people think is great. I say he has to go to a circus.
Sometimes something's got to happen before something is going to happen.
Choose the best player for every position, and you'll end up not with a strong XI, but with 11 strong 1's.
Why couldn't you beat a richer club? I've never seen a bag of money score a goal.
In my teams, the goalie is the first attacker, and the striker the first defender.
I find it terrible when talents are rejected based on computer stats. Based on the criteria at Ajax now I would have been rejected. When I was 15, I couldn't kick a ball 15 meters with my left and maybe 20 with my right. My qualities technique and vision, are not detectable by a computer.
There's not one club in Europe with an anthem like You'll Never Walk Alone. There's not one club in the world so united with their fans. I sat there watching the Liverpool fans and they sent shivers down my spine. A mass of 40,000 people became one force behind their team. That's something not many teams have. For that I admire Liverpool more than anything.
