Rafael Benitez Quotes

I try to get early contact and keep it on the ground. I like to keep the ball down as much as I can.

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

The important thing for me is we want to keep the ball, we want to have the ball because we are Arsenal football club.

With Andy Cole up front they can score at any time. We'll be watching him very closely.

At Tottenham, I'm asked to take a lot of risks to keep maximum possession of the ball and build from the back.

When you play the top sides you cannot afford to be as open as 4-4-2 can leave you. Consequently teams adapt their formation.

Most of the clubs who have had success against Barcelona have relied on a highly organised and disciplined defence.

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

The most dangerous area is the centre, which has to be either attacked or defended in football, and it's the same in chess.

We must not dive into tackles but force the opponent to run so that maybe they will crack late in the game.

We know it's impossible sometimes to have good defending against Cristiano Ronaldo but we want to keep the ball, with good possession, as then he can do nothing in attack.

When a team plays you by pressing so high, if you do not take advantage, they grow in their field, with their atmosphere and the goals they are making.

Against Chelsea, you will have periods in the game when you are right up against it, when they keep the ball. They are pretty solid the way they set their team up.

In England and Germany, perhaps, there is more of a focus on the physical side of the game, in breaking down the opposition's play, especially against the lower placed sides.

When I've watched teams that play with five at the back and wing-backs, I've looked at their starting positions and positions out of possession because that comes a little bit more unnaturally to me.

Don't give them 3-point shots if that's what they're trying to do and embarrass you in any way.

Messi often has a crowd of opponents around him, but with Neymar on the pitch, too, at least two of those opposition players will have to be aware of him.

I have to play with discipline in midfield.

I don't like getting pinned back with a line of four in midfield. You risk losing too much space.

Most teams won't really focus on one player because they've got multiple players to defend and that will open up a lot of things for me.

Italy do not only defend; they can attack, too. They have attacking qualities, and they create chances.

It's how I've been playing my whole life, guarding the best player on the other team.

For me it's more difficult to play against the quicker wingers, but for the team it's perhaps more difficult to face players that are good passers, because one through ball can take the whole team out of the game.

The beginning of everything is our defensive organisation. The clean sheet is always the first objective that we have in the game. Always.

If you concede early against a quality team, you have to play more openly - and can get picked off.