John Wooden Quotes

We were super successful under Mark Sampson because teams didn't expect us to play the way we played. We were so direct and played to people's strengths.

If we want to be a top team, we can't get to 3-0 and suddenly decide not to play without the ball. We have to play with intelligence right through the game.

That's what I hope to put out onto the pitch - a team that knows how to win matches.

If teams keep playing us this way, it's going to be like this.

I think we've been a lot more disciplined with our bowling. Our batting at times has been more disciplined as well.

It was Thomas Tuchel's first season as coach and I played centrally always. The whole team had a great year, one that I enjoyed a lot. Our style has changed a bit, from trying to score within five seconds to a more calm and in some regard more educated style of play. We try to find the right moment - and then we explode.

I don't know anything that builds the will to win better than competitive sports.

As a sportsman, you always play to win. Having said that, it's not possible to win every day. There will be days when you will do well and there will be days you won't.

Sport doesn't work on knee-jerk reactions.

That's what my mindset is, making the right play and doing the right thing each and every possession.

I won't change my type of play, whether we are winning or losing.

To be on time, to eat well like a professional, to sleep like a professional. To train and play like a professional. I encourage everyone to do this every day.

With Arsene, he wanted us to play in the same way regardless of the opponents. The idea was that we could play in our way and beat anyone.

I approach everything, including sobriety, with the same mentality I approached sports with. You're going to put in the time. You've got to suit up, show up, and keep your eyes on the win.

You never know from week to week how one team is going to attack you versus another team.

I'm a coach who admires attacking football. I want my teams to look to win.

I try not to get carried away and to only focus on the team goals to keep winning, to keep performing to the best I can.

Real Madrid have to be at their best in every single training session and every single game.

I always want to play. But it is about making sure you stay ready.

With back-to-backs, a lot of games, sometimes you think, 'I've got to take a day off today.' But you have to push through it. The greats did.

I get up in the morning and I go to practice like everyone else.

You can't just say, 'This team's going to win,' or 'This team's going to lose.' Anything can happen. So what you can control is winning your game as much as possible. If you don't do that, and then the other team has a chance to lose, and they lose, and you didn't go about it the right way, now you just let that slip.

I just go to work every day, spend hours in the film room, go to practice, go home and then do it all again the next day. I know I can be boring and I sound like a walking cliche but I really do just try to get our team ready to win a game on Saturday. That's pretty much my life.

We play sometimes against teams with more individual quality than us, better players, bigger budgets, whatever, but we try to play our football. We don't try to change too much in our philosophy, in our model.

I believe ability can get you to the top,” says coach John Wooden, “but it takes character to keep you there.… It’s so easy to … begin thinking you can just ‘turn it on’ automatically, without proper preparation. It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you’re there. When you read about an athlete or team that wins over and over and over, remind yourself, ‘More than ability, they have character.'