Toni Kroos Quotes

The most important thing is to help the team to come in front of the goal with one-two passes, I drop down, or I give them space, because for defenders, it's always difficult to have a false nine because they don't have a direct player against them, so they don't know exactly what to do.

I knew before I came to Arsenal what kind of players were here. And of course, in training, you can see how many good players are here; the most important thing is that we work well as a team - that's the most important thing.

Guardiola has helped me so when I receive the ball, I have space.

You will never run more than the ball. The players that don't lose the ball are the most important in the team, and good players decide the game.

I know what to do when they give me the ball. I know what to do to give this team a chance to win.

When you're a kid you just think about where you are going to be to put yourself in a position for the next scoring chance. But as you develop, you start to do things that may not catch the eye of the normal football watcher, the dropping back, the closing down.

In five years I have never had a match where my team has had less possession than the opponents.

Sure we have skilled players, but the biggest thing might just be that we are so well conditioned and how we can play for 90 minutes at a high tempo which is needed in soccer at an international level.

I think we've got a lot players in the squad who are more suited to European football at the moment.

The way children are taught football doesn't encourage skill; the focus is on other areas.

I think the most important thing is to play to help the team, winning the games - that is the main thing for me.

My mentality is that I play football to win. You have to do everything you can to win. The most important thing is that you leave nothing out there on the pitch.

I started in a 4-3-3 formation at Ajax, playing in left midfield. There, you need to be just as involved defensively as you are going forward. You attack and you defend, and that allows you to be a complete player.

When you have players like Aaron Ramsey, Gareth Bale, and Joe Allen, you've got to play football.

I like to control the ball and analyse the game.

I think that football has changed, it has become more complex. For example, it's faster, you have less free space, and you have to play from such small spaces.

I want to score more goals, to play more games, but at the end of the day, the most important thing is that the team wins. The other things come with that.

It is impossible to do it for the whole game, but when you have the ball for most of the game and have players like Samir Nasri, David Silva, Yaya Toure, and Raheem Sterling, they keep the ball so well.

In every country, you play a different style of football. Sometimes if it's really tactical, like it is in Spain, it seems like it slows down the tempo, but it's not really the case.

Every footballer enjoys having the ball at their feet. There are times in training you find yourself without the ball. I enjoy that side of it as well. If we can spend more time working with the ball then everyone will enjoy it.

If you have a good midfield, you have a good team.

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.

Pastore has so many qualities. Every pass he makes puts our forwards into position and we create a lot of opportunities thanks to him.

We have four parts of our game: working against the ball; in possession; losing the ball; winning the ball. If you are good in all four parts, you have a good chance of winning.

Obviously, culturally, England's style of play is a lot more direct and physical. In Spain, they're a lot more patient, and they have the ball a lot more.