Defensive Responsibility Quotes

We believe defending is very much a team job, and we can't just rely on a back four and a goalkeeper.

In my time at Milan, the club played with a 4-3-1-2 formation, and I was the player behind the two strikers. At Real, I play behind three. There is a greater defensive obligation, but I try to work around the area.

Klopp would reproach me for not tracking back properly. I took things on board, and I listened to him. I worked hard in training; I stayed behind after training. That's what helped me to shine in the Bundesliga because I scored quite a lot of goals despite some difficult games in the league.

I've got a defensive responsibility as well as trying to get goals and assists. I'm trying to do that.

You look at all the elite players around the League, the guys that are responsible defensively, the guys that can score at will, they kind of do it all.

To be honest, it was only when I was first in the French Ligue 1 that my manager and other people started to say, 'Okay, N'Golo recovers a lot of balls.' Before that, I didn't consider it to be my job in the team.

As a full back, your role is just as much in playing in midfield, getting forward and creating chances, as it is stopping them at the other end.

At fullback you have a little bit more defensive responsibility. You have to help out with your center backs a little bit more. As a wing back, you can be a little bit more aggressive with getting forward.

I'm a defender first and foremost, and if I'm playing right centre-half, I am even more of a defender than the wing-backs.

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.

I'm just getting a lot more opportunity than I got my second year in Phoenix. Here defensively with the Heat, I'm on a lot more tough defensive assignments. They trust me.

Any time as a corner you feel like you're in good position and the ball's still coming, you don't understand why, but you don't care at that point. You just want to catch the ball and hold up your end of the bargain if they throw it to you.

When you look at the goals he has been criticised for, at some point they could have been prevented by a defender, or it was a misunderstanding. It is not down to Joe Hart on his own.

A lot of times, people think of selfish, and they think of offense, but you can be selfish on the defensive end of the floor, too. If you don't uphold your end of our schemes and your responsibilities within those schemes, then you're being just as selfish.

I don't need players who won't track back, and I'm certainly not keen on specialists.

You have to get yourself psyched up because you never have a night off defensively, especially at my position.

You put a lot of pressure on your defenders to be able to hold the fort when you go forward.

As much as you want to improve or help the team, as a centre-back your job is to go under the radar and keep the ball out of the net. If you do that and let the strikers get all the adulation and the headlines, then you're probably doing your job.

Obviously I get paid to score and create chances, and that's what I have to do. But just at the same time, I have to be able to be responsible defensively, good on face-offs, all the little things that coaches love and that win games.