Bastian Schweinsteiger Quotes

Rather than opera, football is more like ballet or a chess game. You can really see it in a team like Arsenal, especially when Dennis Bergkamp was playing. He seemed to be able to read the game like a chessboard and knew where a player would be several seconds later and put the ball there for him.

Playing in midfield is a different ball game. You have to be on the half-turn all the time, have a different picture in your head of what is behind you and in front of you. Playing at right-back is different again.

Usually, the most intelligent player is a midfielder.

Playing me in different positions helped me to get in the head of the others players: to know what they're thinking, where and how they are going to move.

The way I play, it's very much more a mental game than a physical game. I'm looking for space and where are players leaving space. Defensively, where are we at numerical disadvantages? Do I shift more to the left because they have more players on their right side? It's about reading the game before the game happens.

I like to play with my back to the goal, but my colleagues have to tell me when I'm alone or how much room I have so I can choose to pass or to go straight for the goal.

To play as an anchor man you have to be extremely disciplined and a lot of the time you're attracted to the ball but can't go there because if you don't get there or it breaks down there is a hole.

It is up to me to adapt and to continue to surprise with my positioning, the timing of my runs, the trajectories, when I call for the ball.

I try to have a picture when I receive the ball and know where everyone is. That's one of the most important things for a midfielder.

Every good, successful player, especially an attacking player, has a well-developed sense of space and time.

For me football is more about making the right pass at the right time.

When you're a sub, it's a game of more than 11 players starting the game.

Before I came to Barcelona, I only thought about one facet of the game: destroying. My qualities were completely defensive, and I wouldn't take responsibility for organising my team's game, our attacks.

Eddie Howe was the most tactical manager I have worked under.

Guardiola likes footballers who can pass the ball, who have eyes for the best position and the right runs.

I like to control the ball and analyse the game.

The key is developing your game in both directions: in the build-up, joining the attack at the right moment and also in defence. You have to win the one-on-one situations and need the required pace and technique. These are the decisive factors for a defender.

When you are playing with a few players in the pocket, it doesn't leave me isolated. I have a bit more space to work and be higher up the pitch.

You need to know exactly where to be on the pitch at all times.

I have to play with discipline in midfield.

First of all, I am and I remain a goalkeeper, but I try to be involved as much as I can and to help the defenders. I try to read dangerous situations in advance.

Training with Guardiola is good. He's always talking to each player, trying to give them a vision of the style of football he wants to play.

A keeper has to adjust his game to the team. If the team moves further up, he has to do the same. It's nothing I've invented.

I think defending is more of, like, a science, and it's fun to learn that. And then I see attacking as an art.

Each coach you have gives a little something to every player, but the one who changed my game the most was Mancini. He taught me to play more outside the area, dropping me back a bit.