Johan Cruijff

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It is better to fail with your own vision than to fail with another man's vision.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Men
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Playing football is very simple, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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If you can't win, make sure you don't lose.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Winning
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Football
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YOU NEED BOTH QUALITY AND RESULTS. RESULTS WITHOUT QUALITY IS BORING; QUALITY WITHOUT RESULTS IS MEANINGLESS.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Quality
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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There’s only one moment in which you can arrive in time. If you’re not there, you’re either too early or too late.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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If you play on possession, you don't have to defend, because there's only one ball
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Play
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When you play a match, it is statistically proven that players actually have the ball 3 minutes on average ... So, the most important thing is: what do you do during those 87 minutes when you do not have the ball. That is what determines wether you're a good player or not.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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If I wanted you to understand it, I would have explained it better.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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Football is about making mistakes. Who makes the most, loses the game.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Football
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I find it terrible when talents are rejected based on computer stats. Based on the criteria at Ajax now I would have been rejected. When I was 15, I couldn't kick a ball 15 meters with my left and maybe 20 with my right. My qualities technique and vision, are not detectable by a computer.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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Why couldn't you beat a richer club? I've never seen a bag of money score a goal.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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In my teams, the goalie is the first attacker, and the striker the first defender.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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To win you have to score one more goal than your opponent
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Inspirational
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Team
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Player
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There is only one ball, so you need to have it.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Player
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Mistake
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The difference between right and wrong is often not more than five metres.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Differences
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We must make sure their worst players get the ball the most. You'll get it back in no time.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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Choose the best player for every position, and you'll end up not with a strong XI, but with 11 strong 1's.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Player
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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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 Cruijff
Collection: Sports
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When you're playing against a team that has two great central defenders, the best option is to play without a striker.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Team
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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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.'
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Running
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In a way I'm probably immortal.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Way
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He deserves ten out of ten for doing what he does. He is a sensation, but still he can improve. He must know when to move the ball on quickly and when to try the impossible mission. When he learns this, he won't win a single Golden Ball, but an entire collection.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Moving
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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."
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Soccer
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Football
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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I don't make a lot of mistakes, because it's hard for me to be wrong
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Soccer
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I always threw the ball in, because then if I got the ball back, I was the only player unmarked.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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Every advantage has its disadvantage.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Soccer
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Football is simple but the hardest thing to do is play simple football.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Soccer
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The fun part of golf is the variety of shots. In football you can do anything with a ball, but you can do anything with a golf ball as well. When you hit a shot and the ball does exactly what you want it to do ... that's wonderful. It's just great when you hit the ball well. You should always try not to make the ball cry.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Football
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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.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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If you want to play quicker you can start running faster, but it's the ball that decides the speed of the game.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Running
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What is speed? The sports press often confuses speed with insight. See, if I start running slightly earlier than someone else, I seem faster.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Change
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The ball is an essential part of the game.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Games
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Football is simple, you're either on time, or you're too late. If you're too late then you have to leave earlier.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Football
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The most difficult thing about an easy match is to make a weak opponent play bad football.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Soccer
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I still have a lot of room for improvement.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Rooms
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It's all very simple: if you score one more than your opponent, you win.
- Johan Cruijff
Collection: Football