Talk:Johan Cruyff

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“Football is simple. But nothing is more difficult than playing simple football.” [1]
“To play football well, you need good players. But good players nearly always suffer from a lack of efficiency. They always want to do things more beautifully than strictly necessary.” [2]
“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.” [3]
“If you play on possession, you don’t have to defend, because there’s only one ball” [4]
“You have got to shoot, or you can’t score.” [5]
“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” [6]
“When you’re playing against team that has two great central defenders, the best option is to play without a striker.” [7]
“If you want to play quicker you can start running faster, but it’s the ball that decides the speed of the game.” [8]
“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.’” [9]
“At Barcelona I always instructed Koeman to shoot the first free kick into the wall as hard as possible. The next time the players in the wall would be smart enough not to come rushing out again.” [10]
“In small space a player has to be capable of acting quickly. A good player who needs too much time can suddenly become a poor player.” [11]
“A counter-attack can only arise when you make a mistake. That’s why there are rules. A horizontal pass? Prohibited. In my line-up there are as many lines as possible. Because you must have the option to pass the ball forward, even if it’s a meter. Because then I can still make up for the loss of possession. After a horizontal pass this is impossible.” [12]
“Players that aren’t true leaders but try to be, are always bashing other players after a mistake. True leaders on the pitch assume others will make mistakes.” [13]
“In my teams, the goalie is the first attacker, and the striker the first defender.” [14]
“He scores the most beautiful goals, but he doesn’t have any qualities.”
- Johan Cruyff on Filippo Inzaghi [15]
“He is a great goalscorer. But a poor footballer.”
- Johan Cruyff on Ruud van Nistelrooy [16]
“He does something great once a month. But with his talent he should be the star every single game.”
- Johan Cruyff on Dennis Bergkamp [17]
“One of the most difficult players I have worked with. When he gives 80–90% he is still by far the best, but I want 100%, and he rarely does that. (..) When Michael plays like a dream, a magic illusion, determined to show his extreme abilities, no one in the world comes anywhere near his level.”
- Johan Cruyff on Michael Laudrup [18]
“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.”
- Johan Cruyff on José Mourinho [19]