Quotes About Midfield

Busquets is a sitting midfield player who breaks up play, intercepts, passes it very quickly and is intelligent. That's what he is. He's not much more than that, but he gets a lot of praise for it. Whereas Eric Dier does a similar job, but sometimes gets loads of criticism for it.

I think Barcelona and the Spanish national team have been good for soccer because there are a lot of teams that come up playing from the back: with the goalie, the defense, moving up a defender to midfield, playing attacking soccer. I think fans want to see that. They want to see beautiful soccer, a spectacle, and Barcelona does that.

As I'm growing up, going into holding midfield, I'm watching Busquets quite a lot for Barcelona. The way he controls the game, his reading of it, technically, defensively - everything about him cuts him out above the rest. I'm really enjoying watching him.

Ancelotti's teams are more balanced. It's a more Italian defense and creativity from the midfield forward. I admire his work and also his discreet profile. I am also like that.

Sometimes in midfield, it's nice because you do get a little bit more of the ball, and maybe out wide you rely on people to get you the ball.

Two wide men stuck out wide leave you very open in midfield, but it's a strength as well. Going forward, it makes you pretty dangerous to anyone.

I just want to be able to be an attacking influence and have that effect further up the pitch; whether that's from an attacking midfield position or one of the wider positions coming in, I'm not too fussed.

Paulinho provides pace, strength and quality goals in the middle of the park.

I often felt as a player in a 4-4-2, you end up being outnumbered in midfield and chasing the ball, so as a manager I liked wingbacks to push forward; it gives the midfield player on the ball three or four options.

Frank was an example throughout my career at Chelsea, and throughout my career as a midfielder. When it comes to scoring goals as a midfielder, you look at Frank Lampard as a role model.

If you have control of the midfield, you have control of the game, and you have more chances to win.

Pirlo is a cool customer who does things in his own time. On the pitch, he just looks so relaxed, no matter what is going on around him. He is one of those greats who looks like he could run a midfield with a glass of red wine in one hand.

People can say I've not scored enough goals, but you see the best strikers on the wing in a four-man midfield and see if they score goals. Nobody can really criticise my finishing because they don't really see me playing in a forward position too often.

Shinji Kagawa is one of the best players in the world, and he now plays 20 minutes at Manchester United - on the left wing! My heart breaks. Really, I have tears in my eyes. Central midfield is Shinji's best role.

For United, I'm more likely to be left wing of a four-man midfield with only two centre-mids, so it's a bit more difficult for me to maybe make those runs to get in and score those goals when I've got to think about my defensive duties as well.

Normally when you look at the Ballon d'Or winners, they're either attacking midfield players or centre-forwards. They are goalscorers and eye-catching players.

Dominating the midfield is the most important thing in modern football. To succeed, you have to be good at everything.

I have fans rooting for me, all the other drivers in the midfield have fans rooting for them, and they never get to see that driver fighting for wins. Of course it would be a lot better if you had a broader range of drivers who were in the fight for wins.

It doesn't matter who you play against in midfield, you need to try to come out on top and more often than not when a team wins a midfield battle they normally have a good chance of winning the game because that's where a lot of the play goes through.

The midfield is the heartbeat of a football team, it's the centre of the action, so you can't just do one thing.

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

If you insist on playing Jorginho, who is neat and tidy but not a goal threat, you have to have goal threats on either side of him.

I find it interesting as every year people say the midfield is as tight as ever but it is always tight, it is always competitive. I've pretty much spent my entire career in the midfield so I know about it!

Yes, he is not unused to playing in midfield, but at the same time he's not used to playing there either.