Johan Cruijff Quotes

Playing football is very simple, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is.

I don't make a lot of mistakes, because it's hard for me to be wrong

Mourinho is a coach of titles, not football. Or rather, not a football coach if we understand the sport is a spectacle or entertainment for those who watch it, either at home or live in the stadium.

Ronaldo is better than George Best and Denis Law, who were two brilliant and great players in the history of United.

If you play on possession, you don't have to defend, because there's only one ball

There's not one club in Europe with an anthem like You'll Never Walk Alone. There's not one club in the world so united with their fans. I sat there watching the Liverpool fans and they sent shivers down my spine. A mass of 40,000 people became one force behind their team. That's something not many teams have. For that I admire Liverpool more than anything.

If my forward arrives in a one vs one situation, I always say: 'let him work it out.' Then my players say: But we can help him!'. My reply is: First, there's a good chance you'll only run in his way, and as a second attacker you're drawing a second defender with you, and two vs two is harder than one vs one.'

If you have the ball, you must make the field as big as possible, and if you don't have the ball, you must make it as small as possible.

Eric Cantona is a great player, but he's not as good as Ryan Giggs

Football is about making mistakes. Who makes the most, loses the game.

However good an English team is, they will always have an additional advantage. It is that European players know that their English opponents will come at them in the belief they will win, and they can always be guaranteed never to stop fighting. They have a natural aggression that they are born with. If it ever goes, English football will lose its most valuable dimension.

To play well, you need good players, but a good player almost always has the problem of a lack of efficiency. He always wants to do things prettier than strictly necessary.

Players today can only shoot with their laces. I could shoot with the inside, laces, and outside of both feet. In other words, I was six times better than today's players.

It's all very simple: if you score one more than your opponent, you win.

What is speed? The sports press often confuses speed with insight. See, if I start running slightly earlier than someone else, I seem faster.

Technique is not being able to juggle a ball 1000 times. Anyone can do that by practicing. Then you can work in the circus. Technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right foot of your team mate.

Italy cannot beat you but you can lose to Italy.

When you're playing against a team that has two great central defenders, the best option is to play without a striker.

I don't want to be a thief of my own wallet.

I still have a lot of room for improvement.

Before I make a mistake, I don't make that mistake.

Footballers from the street are more important than trained coaches.

Every trainer talks about movement, about running a lot. I say don't run so much. Football is a game you play with your brain. You have to be in the right place at the right moment, not too early, not too late.

I always threw the ball in, because then if I got the ball back, I was the only player unmarked.

I can be a new Di Stefano, but I can't be a new Pelé. He is the one that goes beyond the limits of logic.

YOU NEED BOTH QUALITY AND RESULTS. RESULTS WITHOUT QUALITY IS BORING; QUALITY WITHOUT RESULTS IS MEANINGLESS.

Playing against 10 is harder than playing against 11 players. You know why? The team with 11 will think "ok, we can take it easy now", while the team with 10 will think "We really have to work hard now."

After you've won something, you're no longer 100 percent, but 90 percent. It's like a bottle of carbonated water where the cap is removed for a short while. Afterwards there's a little less gas inside.

Every professional golfer has a seperate coach for his drives, for approaches, for putting. In football we have one coach for 15 players. This is absurd.

Football is simple but the hardest thing to do is play simple football.

For the world of football, Messi is a treasure because he is role model for children around the world... Messi will be the player to win the most Ballons d'Or in history. He will win five, six, seven. He is incomparable. He's in a different league.

In a way I'm probably immortal.

One trophy is good, but two are better. That way, when a hero wears his medals on his chest, at least his steps are level as he walks by.

Football is simple. You are in time or too late. When you are too late, you should start sooner.

Football is a game of mistakes. Whoever makes the fewest mistakes wins.

Players that aren't true leaders but try to be, always bash other players after a mistake. True leaders on the pitch already assume others will make mistakes.

I'm ex-player, ex-technical director, ex-coach, ex-manager, ex-honorary president. A nice list that once again shows that everything comes to an end.

There is only one ball, so you need to have it.

The hardest thing about an easy match is making a weak opponent play poor. A poor player isn't poor because he tends to kick the ball in his own goal. It's because when you put intense pressure on him, he loses control. So you have to increase the tempo of the game and he'll automatically give the ball away.

Someone who has juggled the ball in the air during a game, after which four defenders of the opponent get the time to run back, that's the player people think is great. I say he has to go to a circus.

You have got to shoot, otherwise you can't score.

Football is simple, you're either on time, or you're too late. If you're too late then you have to leave earlier.

Speed is often confused with insight. When I start running earlier than the others, I appear faster.

Without the ball, you can't win.

If you want to play quicker you can start running faster, but it's the ball that decides the speed of the game.

Coincidence is logical.

There are very few players who know what to do when they're not marked. So sometimes you tell a player: that attacker is very good, but don't mark him.

Football is a simple game. It's just very hard to play it simple.