Top 101 Defender Quotes

In the late ’90s and early 2000s, basketball was more about making your defender look stupid than scoring. Seriously. You could miss every layup, so long as you turned an ankle or buckled a knee.

I think as a central defender you grow as a player.

Sergio Ramos is the best defender in the world, but it’s not just me saying this.

I am a defender, but I can play the ball. I have a good technique.

As a defender, you can be many shapes and sizes. You can be short and fast. Or you can be tall and jump high. It doesn’t matter. The only necessity is that you are confident when you take the pitch – because every week there is a new challenge.

I need to be more aggressive, more vocal, be a better defender. I’ve worked on all those tirelessly.

After a great save or a mistake by a defender, I prefer not to shout on him; I prefer to wait and say it inside of the dressing room. I was always like that. I am relaxed, I try to be normal after a mistake, and when I make a mistake, I don’t want people coming to me on the pitch shouting at me.

For you to even enquire about one player, he is expensive. You go to buy a right-back, a left-back, or a central defender, and he is expensive.

Ideally, if you ask most tight ends, they would say we want the defender on us early. The reason for that is we feel like, for one, we know where we’re going. Two, we can attack leverage, it declares itself if it’s truly man coverage. We can work the release.

I think I’ve shown patches of being a good defender and then I’ve gotten lazy off the ball and you make a stupid play and you look like you can’t guard anybody.

I look at it this way: If the defender gets the chance they’ll lay it on you. So for the most part I just try to go out there and bring it to them like they would try to do to me.

I love Joe Ingles. I think Joe Ingles is a tremendous glue player, terrific shooter, passer, defender.

Eventually, I think I’ll probably end up at centre-half. By the time I get to 28 or 29, I imagine I’ll be a defender.

I am a forthright defender of the right to bear arms – which is guaranteed not only by the U.S. Constitution, but by the Constitution of Arizona.

I didn’t start out wanting to be a defender. Who would want to be in the back-line after having watched striker Paolo Rossi score six goals in the 1982 World Cup?

When you go into a game on offense, you make a couple moves and see what the defender is going to do. Then you pretty much can figure out what he is going to do against you – whether he carries his hands low or high, whether he is bumping or pushing, those type of things.

If you’ve got a fast and strong defender, on the left, I feel like I can give him trouble going down the line, coming inside, or making runs in behind.

Los Angeles is the strongest defender of immigrants perhaps of any city in this country.

I am a Zionist, an ardent supporter of Israel, its defender when I deem Israel to be right and its critic when I deem it to be wrong.

I think I’m a great defender, to be honest.

For me, the best defender I played against was Carles Puyol. He was my teammate, too, but my rival many times. Also, Roberto Ayala, the Argentinian centerback.

Bogut – I wouldn’t be the defender I am without Bogut. He taught me a ton. Angles. How to guard the post. You name it, he taught me a ton.

I do like to play and pass the ball. But first and foremost I see myself as a defender: blocking, tackling, heading.

We discussed buying a defender. The view was the priority at that time given the way we were playing was that we needed support up front and that is why we bought Louis Saha.

When I was a kid, I was a striker. Then, I started to be a winger and defender sometimes.

I don’t want to ever change my mindset and expect less of myself as a defender.

At Kentucky, that was my job – coming off screens, catch and shoot, spacing the floor – no hesitations. Just go right into my shot – don’t focus on the defender.

I am not a ‘defender’ of the September 11 attacks, but simply pointing out that if U.S. foreign policy results in massive death and destruction abroad, we cannot feign innocence when some of that destruction is returned.

I like to play against strikers and think that, from my size alone, I’m more of a central defender.

I’ve always looked up to John Terry; he’s a massive defender and a rock. His one-v-one defending and reading of the game have really educated me. I watch a lot of clips of him.

I’ve done quite a bit in England. I’ve won the majority of trophies and awards that there is to win, apart from top goalscorer… which is hard as a defender.

Connecticut is proud of the human rights legacy of Thomas Dodd, and the work of the University of Connecticut to build on that legacy through the Dodd Human Rights Impact initiative. We are also proud of our Commission on Human and Civil Rights as a tireless defender of the equal rights for all of our community members.

I rate Dave Luiz as a top defender. He’s very clever. But I don’t know if he’s as quick as me. And if he kicks me, he kicks me. It’s fine. I can’t react to anything.

On a lot of teams that bottom guy, that weakside defender, is critical if something happens and you’re broken down off the dribble or you’re beat. That person has got to be there.

When I played, I just wanted to guard the best player, and I didn’t want him to score. That was just it, just competing. Along the way, it just kept building that I could be a great defender.

You have to adapt and find your niche, in terms of the type of player you can become, both on and off the pitch. I always knew I’d have no chance against a 1.90m, 90kg defender in a duel, so the key is to avoid these situations altogether. You have to pick your space and time.

I’m a defender first and foremost – blocks, headers, vital tackles, or even just the communication side of it, which is massive but doesn’t really get recognised.

Further, a defensive policy involves the loss of the initiative, with all the consequent disadvantages to the defender.

As a big man you may struggle to get much height when jumping for a ball – but by training with your defender team-mates you can develop a technique for making strong challenges in the air, making defenders uncomfortable and work on taking the ball down.

I’ve got all these memories of guys just trying to get steals and not being very solid or very good defensively. They have all these steals so they must be a great defender. I usually find it to be the opposite.

I’ve tried to improve – defending, attacking, pressing, trying to think before a game, to be more clever, do something before the defender can think of it, to become a better player. That makes me feel good, that hunger to improve in every way.

If the offensive player starts losing confidence, that gets the defender’s confidence up – and I think the team can feel it.

I got the call, ‘Celtic want you.’ And I knew Celtic were a top, top team. I thought it would be much easier than it was. It was quicker than I thought. When you got the ball, there was always a defender at you.

When you come out of pick-and-roll, it’s really tough to step back and shoot because the defender is coming.

As attorney general I see my role as defender both of press freedom and of the fair administration of justice.

Ronaldinho and I are two totally different players. He is an attacker and I’m a defender, so there is no comparison. I did not feel any pressure, because I love to play my own style.

As a defender I try to keep clean sheets.

A lot of people label me as not a defender for some reason. I don’t know why.

It could be the best defender or the worst defender. I have to have the attitude that I don’t think anyone is going to deter me from getting to the basket. Maybe help defense can come over and affect it, but not the first guy.

As a defender, we take pride in getting clean sheets.

Sergio Ramos has everything to become the best defender in the world, if he is not already.

When you look at the goals he has been criticised for, at some point they could have been prevented by a defender, or it was a misunderstanding. It is not down to Joe Hart on his own.

For me, Thiago Silva remains the best defender in the world.

I just play hard on the defensive end. For me, being a good defender is someone who plays very hard on defense and just tries hard.

I love Land Rover Defenders. I love ’em. I love the old 90 Defender; it’s my favorite car. I just see one – even the 110 – but if I just see one of those things parked, I just stop in my tracks every time.

If a defender hits you and you stay down he might think he’s got the better of you, so to get up and keep going is important.

I’ve always felt I had the ability to be a good, elite defender in this league on the wing. I just need to lock in. I feel if I pick that up, I can be a very good all-around player.

If a defender has the ball and turns, we start pressing the goalkeeper before he passes back because if they make a mistake, it is a chance.

I played central defender for the most part when I started playing football, either central defence or right-back.