Massimiliano Allegri Quotes

If you're talking about English football very few teams play 4-4-2 now: it's either 4-4-1-1, 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, they are the three major systems played throughout the Premier League.

Football tactics are rapidly becoming as complicated as the chemical formula for splitting the atom.

I like to study everything: the way to be dangerous when you are attacking; what the players should do when you don't have the ball; where they should be. The tactics you tell the players to follow come from all this study.

It's always tough to play against teams that bunker or 'park the bus' inside the 18-yard box, but we always try to focus on our game and how we can overcome the obstacles that the game presents to continue to get better and score goals.

My perfect formation would be 4-3-3 with one holding and then the two going forward. I would be one of the ones going forward.

I'm not going to say the Dutch league is naive but they all play to win. In the Premier League, you have teams with a different idea.

It's a different playing style than at Monaco; there were two of us in midfield there, and here at Liverpool, there's three.

Most teams - whether they like it or not against Manchester City - you're going to find yourself quite often penned in your own half.

It is possible to stop Messi. Teams do it when he plays for Argentina. But the Barcelona Messi is different.

The last thing you want as a striker is the opposing team putting all 10 players behind the ball.

I've become accustomed to playing against four defenders throughout my career, but in Italy, I have to play against five.

There is no Benitez 'method.' We try to be more solid in defense without losing the quality in attack.

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.

Good players win you games, good formations stop you losing them.

The best way to stop Messi is when you play with 11 men and then you can double mark him, one player to stay on him and the other to help out. If it is 11 against 10 then you have almost no chance of stopping him.

What football means to an Italian coach is tactics, trying to control the game by following the ideas and systems of the manager.

United are capable of setting up a low block and making it difficult, but they're also capable of coming out and pressing high.

I've always preferred a 4-3-3. It's a more fluid and dynamic system, and I think it plays to my strengths better.

Tactically, Italians are very strong. They are a lot into tactics: how to defend, when you lose the ball, where will you be?

If you watch me during the game, I celebrate when we press the ball and it goes out.

The differences between the top teams in Euro 2000 are so minimal that I think you have to be very clever in defence and stop your opponents getting opportunities.

The formula to beat the press is simple; it's the execution that's tough. If you have the quality to do so, you pass your way through it. And if you don't, you just boot it over the top. And then it becomes a game of winning 'second balls'.

I came from Ajax where you play 4-3-3 and as a winger they didn't want you to defend.

With Ronaldo, I think I've identified a few patterns; there are certain striking things. I will try to utilise this knowledge to my advantage.

United are about attacking football, and everything else has to takes its place behind that.