Michael Laudrup Quotes

If you are the coach of a national team, you have to evaluate players based on what they do on the pitch.

Anyway, how can you sack anyone who still hasn't got a contract. I'll be there for the game and I'll stand behind the dugout giving instructions to the players from there. They will respond to me more than the next manager.

If we kept all the players I liked personally, we'd be a lot worse team over the years.

You have to build a team, but someone's got to lead, and someone's got to be unpopular at times.

I think you have to be more flexible to be a pro coach because once you pay the guy the money, whether he can backpedal the way you want him to or whatever, his style of play may not suit you, but you still are going to play him, and he is going to be a part of your team.

Why does it get assumed that Zidane is a figurehead and everything Real achieve is down to the talent of the squad?

If the owner goes inside a team and picks one player to play, I can no longer be the manager. Decisions must be made by the manager.

I don't drop players. I make changes.

You know, I think when you coach or you manage, you make decisions, and there's some that are really, really tough.

When you turn your team upside down and try to figure out what the culture of the team is, you take the greatest risk a team can take.

General managers - I like to talk about the 'golden gut': general managers that not only can have a sense for the players that are going to perform beyond what people expect and get team chemistry right, but they also have to be able to make trades.

I'd had success with the junior England teams.

Fans have their own idea about who to hire; that's what makes football great.

It's never a straightforward thing to do, to be able to inherit a squad. When you're mid-season it's never easy to get a team or a squad of players to function exactly the way you want them to.

Modern football is increasingly dominated by the coaches - their narcissism to put themselves above the team and their players.

Messi would never tell a coach who he has to play or not. I think he not only lacks the power to do that but also is not humanly capable of saying that.

The coach can only choose 11 players to start. It is a difficult decision.

Bad performances can happen and are not that serious - even with new players. You can't, say, sell him, get a new one.

Whatever player Arsene picks to play for Arsenal, I respect that and so should the fans.

I think what Brendan Rodgers did was right; I thought it was successful. He was able to show that he was able to change several players, prove to everybody in the team that no-one's guaranteed a spot, rest a lot of key players, and at the same time walk away with a very reputable result.

The coach should be the absolute boss, but he still should maintain an open mind.

I'm sure the England selectors thought if they took me on and gave me the job, I'd want to run the show. They were shrewd, because that's exactly what I would have done.

Now I see why everybody who plays for him doesn't like him.

Every coach has his own ideas about managing the team and how it plays.

Us coaches love to have as many players available as possible.