Quotes from Manuel Pellegrini

Some big teams prefer to be very strong defensively and have two, three, four counter-attacking players.

What I want is to recover the ball as near to the other box as we can, and when we have the ball, play.

If you give time and space to players, they will make good decisions and score goals.

I always say it must not be an obsession to win the Champions League. It's a very important title and beautiful to do it. But you must not try to win the Champions League and lose focus on the Premier League.

When you don't have any worries, it is better, but things happen in football, and we know we must try to resolve as soon as we can.

As a manager, you worry about any different issue you have in your squad.

When I started to be a coach, I expected a lot - maybe too much - in terms of physical approach, tactics, and technique. There was too little emphasis on human relationships.

Yaya is a great player, a top player that plays in every part of the role.

It is impossible for you to be remembered as a great team if you do not win the Champions League.

In the Champions League, you can have a bad game and go out in the semifinal, and nobody remembers what you did.

When you need to renew your contract, you must demonstrate why they are renewing your contract.

What I don't want to be is the most important person of the club. If we win a game, it was the players who played very well.

English football gives other leagues an advantage. There are some traditions you can't change, I realise that. Boxing Day is non-negotiable. But you can't play nine games in December and nine in January. You have to stop at some point.

I learned English, French, Italian.

When I made the transition from player to coach, I evaluated myself and saw that I needed to improve my personality. I would fight with players - literally. I was 35, and you can't be like that; you have young players to guide. You have to transmit calm.

A lot of young players relax a bit when they reach the first-team, thinking they have reached the finish line, but really, it's just the beginning.

First, as an owner of the club, you must choose a style of football. After that, you must find the managers that will work with the young players in your team in that style. After that, you must put a manager in the squad with the same mentality.

This hunger of triumph is fundamental in order to get results.

As a manager, I won eight trophies in Chile, Ecuador, and Argentina.

It's very difficult to have the same motivation in the season after you've won two trophies.

The idea of developing football and winning trophies at Real Madrid does not fall in line with how I see football.

You create a big-club mentality with the trust of the players, the trust that the team will get results, and then, when results are not good, the trust to continue with your idea.

When you win something, if you don't have that mentality that comes from a tradition of always winning, the built-in demands of a big club, there's always a small dip.

Lionel Messi is very difficult to contain.