When we have the ball, the other team has to run. The most important thing is for the players to be prepared to be a little bit wild.
We probably spend more time talking about individual players in our coaching sessions than anything else.
Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar – Kane has been on that level. He is one of those players that is irreplaceable and I am sure that Tottenham will be doing all they can to make sure he stays.
At Real, psychological pressure on the players is much more serious than at United. This is good. At many clubs, you don’t know the consequence of playing badly.
By joining Common Goal, I hope I can encourage the younger generation of players to think about social responsibility in their lives.
As an international player, the players have to adapt to the condition no matter what the situation is.
We have to talk about the players we have.
It’s not only what happens on the court that makes us the players we are; it’s also everything that happens outside the court.
If you whoop and holler all the time, the players just get used to it.
So along with that is spending a lot of time with the ball. For me it was, I loved to juggle the ball in my front yard, and I always challenged myself – how many juggles can I get today? I think for players to get better, it’s just about spending the time.
The more that Japanese players go to the big leagues to play and succeed, the more that will serve to inspire young kids in Japan to want to become baseball players when they grow up.
Whenever a ball is played backwards, make the right decision, back a player to pick you out, so there a lot of ways players can take responsibility on the pitch.
Call me old fashioned, but we’re now holding umbrellas up as our players get off a plane. Do they need that? It’s a few spots of rain. OK, they might get wet. Well, let them get wet. That’s what happens when it rains.
I think Cristiano and Lionel Messi are two of the best players in the history of the game. Are they better than Pele or Diego Maradona? They are at the top, but I think it is difficult in football to say who is first or second or third.
We talked with PSG, but quickly, I knew that it wasn’t where I wanted to go. In France, for me, it was only Lyon. PSG could have enabled me to make progress because they have great players, but I wanted to experience another league.
Young boys must be taught to play football without leading with or lowering their heads. Young players must be drilled over and over and over with Heads Up Football skills until that skill set becomes muscle memory and second nature.
The 24-hour news cycle is kind of insatiable. Players in the ’80s and ’90s didn’t have to deal with that scrutiny.
Sometimes you’re going to be shoved into a corner, and even though it’s against your principles, against the way that you like to play the game, you’re going to have to protect your own players.
I had three rules for my players: No profanity. Don’t criticize a teammate. Never be late.
Players would empty their souls to me; you cannot fathom the stories I’ve heard, everything from the good to the bad. I tried whatever I could to work things out.
I think of guitar players in terms of doctors: you have the doctor for your heart, the cardiologist, then one that works on your feet, your leg. But I believe George Benson is the one that plays all over. To me, he would be the M.D. of them all.
I played with a lot of great players before. They’re all the same. They take a lot of responsibility for their own play, put a lot of pressure on themselves to perform and to play well.
I think, actually, any morality system that rewards only the extremes is a flawed system. Players don’t approach life that way, they don’t approach games that way, and they shouldn’t be trained to approach games that way. They shouldn’t be in the ‘Star Wars’ mode where, ‘I’ve got to choose every good option.’
Some of the money from the senior players goes to helping out the younger kids. It is from the players’ pool, the fines for being late and so on. Some will go to something like the tsunami appeal and some to helping out young players.
Seve Ballesteros was the best trouble-shot player who ever lived. It didn’t matter how far in the woods you put that guy, he’d find a way to get out. But Seve inadvertently put a lot of big numbers on the scorecards of average players, because he inspired them to take dumb chances.
Players now have a groin injury for months and months, and I often think they don’t really give a toss whether they’re playing or not because they’re getting paid anyway.
Who says a center can’t make the pass into the post? Michael Jordan, effectively, was a post player and you saw with the championship teams players able to do multiple things.
I always wanted to play in the NFL. I decided to go to Florida State University as my college to play football because the coach there – Bobby Bowden – had a pedigree and acumen for putting players into the league.
I do believe Allen Iverson knew this, and I believe all the players know this: that certain referees treat them much better than others.
You look at all the great players that they’ve had and the potential of playing in Yankee Stadium.
My coach from the time I was a kid was a specialist of hard courts. He teach me a different forehand than the rest of Argentinian players. That’s why I am able to work better on hard courts.
I can’t be a manager, because I think it’s too tough managing 30 players thinking in different ways.
A professional player is smarter than a college man. He uses his noodle. He knows what to do and when to do it. He rarely goes up in the air as is the case with most of our college players when they get in a tight place.
I always leave everything on the court, every game. Tell me how many other players can say that.
I like my players to be married and in debt. That’s the way you motivate them.
It’s quite strange looking down the list of players who’ve won the young player award in the past and then thinking I’m in there too now. There’s some great names like Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy – and I can’t miss out Chris Gunter – and it’s a big boost to be included.
All the managers in the world, it doesn’t matter how good you are, if your players don’t understand what you are looking for or what you want, it makes no sense.
There are footballers who are very good playing on the outside but don’t know what to do inside. Then there are players who are very good inside but don’t have the physique, the legs, to go outside.
I think all great players set a target for themselves in their careers. Mine was to win a world title with Brazil, which I did twice.
When young players become one of the best in the world, everyone wants to sign them.
You have to be humble and learn from the players around you.
I believe I am strong mentally. My breaking points might be bigger than most players. I think it’s because of the way I grew up with my two older brothers. They pushed my limits quite often – once every day, I think! I think that played a big role in my breaking point being bigger than most players. Not all players.
The one thing you have to address with Randy Moss is not a conditioning thing. It’s not an age thing. It needs to be addressed. I believe it’s the elephant in the room. It’s that thing called quit. And Randy, not like any other superstar I’ve met, he has more quit in him than any of those other players.
My philosophy is that you don’t motivate players with speeches; you have motivated players that you draft. That’s where they come in, and those are the guys that are competitive. You can not teach competitiveness.
I never got the trust to guard those great, great players with the Wizards.
Never stop believing in yourself; play with your qualities. You always have to keep making steps. Progress is everything. The big players, every season, they become a new player: they learn, and they learn. That’s the key.
My parents have been volleyball players, and my dad is an Arjuna awardee in volleyball.
Players have two things to do. Play and keep their mouths shut.
I think that there’s more jealousy in sports than racism, really. I think racism exists in the works, but when I faced racism in hockey, a lot of times from jealousy, because when I was young, I was always one of the better players. And I think a lot of people were threatened by that.
