Quotes from Diego Simeone

The teams that defend well are as important as those that attack well. If you don't concede goals it is much easier to win but it is all about having balance.

The hardest thing in life is reinventing yourself and staying at the top of your game, whilst the hardest thing in football is finding that club you want to stay at.

Liga MX is a great environment, the fans are very enthusiastic.

My role is to take the player to his limits, to provoke him, to annoy him against me, because in this nervousness is the will to improve.

Psychology is important but motivation is something that if you don't have it inside then you can't provide it.

Diego Costa always gives us physical and moral strength. He is a very important player for the character he transmits to the team, and his potential as a football player.

Few footballers at 20 or 21 are the finished article.

Whether you win or lose against English teams, you always feel it's been a proper contest.

Artificial pitches are just one more condition for us, like sun, wind or snow; we should be able to deal with such conditions.

Like I've always said, in football the most important thing is the quality of minutes not the quantity.

I demand a lot and we look to improve, but I'm glad that Atleti are expected to be among the best every year.

He who brings a style to a club that can't carry it out, he is not a good manager, because he is attacking the club that hires him.

As a coach you need to choose the characteristics your players can contribute. I don't think it's a good thing for a coach to analyse his team by looking for something he sees in other teams. He has to pay close attention to the characteristics his team have, and make the most of those.

Busquets reads everything. Players like Busquets or Xabi Alonso in midfield have the capacity to read the whole game.

I will never coach Real Madrid.

Football is wonderful because no one is right: there's no absolute truth.

It's not enough to just have talent at Atletico Madrid. At other clubs it is, but we can't sign superstars and have to look for players with a good work ethic.

With any possibly erroneous decision, you can always look back and think you could've done something differently - but always with the benefit of hindsight.

I always believe that there are players that are hard to replace.

Whenever a fellow coach is sacked it is not good for any of us - it hurts. You just have to accept it because it is part of the game.

I went a week to see Mourinho at training, and another week with Guardiola. I learned from the two, I took important things from both.

The only improvement I know in football is through work, it is the only way for the team to grow.

As a coach, the greatest passion you can have is for improving players.

Ajax have a set model, a defined youth programme - Barcelona have one too, and Juventus. And Atletico Madrid do too. Real Madrid don't - because they alternate developing their own players with signing talent.