The most difficult thing about an easy match is to make a weak opponent play bad football.
Football is about having the best offensive play possible. I always like to play offensive football, and nobody will convince me otherwise.
However good an English team is, they will always have an additional advantage. It is that European players know that their English opponents will come at them in the belief they will win, and they can always be guaranteed never to stop fighting. They have a natural aggression that they are born with. If it ever goes, English football will lose its most valuable dimension.
Football is simple but the hardest thing to do is play simple football.
Every professional golfer has a seperate coach for his drives, for approaches, for putting. In football we have one coach for 15 players. This is absurd.
The fun part of golf is the variety of shots. In football you can do anything with a ball, but you can do anything with a golf ball as well. When you hit a shot and the ball does exactly what you want it to do ... that's wonderful. It's just great when you hit the ball well. You should always try not to make the ball cry.
It's all very simple: if you score one more than your opponent, you win.
What is speed? The sports press often confuses speed with insight. See, if I start running slightly earlier than someone else, I seem faster.
Football is simple, you're either on time, or you're too late. If you're too late then you have to leave earlier.
Surviving the first round is never my aim. Ideally, I'd be in one group with Brazil, Argentina and Germany. Then I'd have lost two rivals after the first round. That's how I think. Idealisitic.
After you've won something, you're no longer 100 percent, but 90 percent. It's like a bottle of carbonated water where the cap is removed for a short while. Afterwards there's a little less gas inside.
You know I don't think there will ever be a time when the English player is not respected, and feared, across the world of football. The English footballer is very brave and strong and committed and there is always enough high-class players in his team to cause concern in any opponent. It is a national characteristic.
Football is a simple game. It's just very hard to play it simple.
For the world of football, Messi is a treasure because he is role model for children around the world.
I felt sorry for the match ball - it came off the pitch crying.
Football is simple. You are in time or too late. When you are too late, you should start sooner.
