Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Mario Gotze is a great player, but one of my favourites is Marco Reus, who is a fantastic player, and one of the very best.
Chelsea is an ambitious club and it will always be possible that a coach and the players are competitive at the highest level.
If you want to work as a coach for longer term you need consistency, trust in the club and also the environment around the club.
Chelsea have given me the opportunity to play in a top team with top players, so I will try to be as successful as possible here.
I don't want to look back on my career at some point and say, 'What a pity, I came close a few times, but it was never good enough.'
Sometimes you can lose games unluckily or the other team is better than you and has a great day as well. That can happen in football.
At 36 years old I can look back on a long and wonderful time in professional football, which I could never have dreamed of as a child.
In the summer, during the holidays, there would be 5,000 people each day at training with Bayern Munich and that makes it hard to concentrate.
Playing for Chelsea I have to be more ruthless than in the German team, where I have managed to earn myself a different status over the years.
I've had a few injuries and if you can't carry on, that's always a bad sign. Sometimes it's bruising or sometimes it's a nerve that stops you.
A player can't request on what position he wants to play, and it is the same with the captaincy. One should respect this, there are hierarchies.
It's good for your career as a sportsman if you watch other professional sports - how they're behaving and how they react in difficult situations.
You love what you do but it's still a job and you are limited in the time to earn money and you think about it if someone makes you a crazy offer.
I didn't join Chelsea to lose things. I came because the Premier League is the strongest in the world and I am playing for one of the strongest teams.
We should integrate the quality of ex-players at the highest level more in football, especially in the youth sector. That is absolutely crucial for me.
The main reason to come to England and Chelsea was to play with a great team. Money and the chance to live in a city like London are additional factors.
I played in the Champions League constantly for 12 or 13 years in my career, and I reached only two finals. I know how difficult it is to get to that point.
I was able to turn my hobby into my profession, and I am thankful for that. But I have other interests beside football, and I can devote my time to them now.
I am happy to play in the Premier League. It's a competition which encourages players to give only their very best week in, week out and you have to be 100%.
Players sometimes don't want to have this heavy weight on their shoulders to carry the team or to get asked in certain situations to have that responsibility.
As German players we have something special inside us, because of our football history. We know we have to win, it is what is expected, so we have a good focus.
It is not about the system, it is about how individuals perform on the pitch and whether they do the right things, so it is not as simple as just picking a system.
I have said in the past that I would be happy to see out my career at Chelsea. I moved here to play in the best league in the world with one of the strongest teams.
I would have loved to have had a farewell match, and would have wanted the DFB to make that offer. But certain people did not plan that for me. I have to accept that.
A leader on the pitch is someone who can turn a game in the right direction, he isn't someone who has a go at his colleagues after the match for everything they did wrong.
It is really difficult, after Jose Mourinho, to work at Chelsea. It could cause a problem for any manager because Mourinho had such a relationship with the players and the fans.
When you're young it's football, football, football. Then you get a family, kids come into things and you find you have a broader view of life. You get your inspiration from many different places.
That's what counts for you as a player if you are on a high salary and you are earning, let's say, enough money, which you normally can't spend in your lifetime. It's something you should really think about - where you play, what level you play, the audience.
You don't step back and have less motivation when you get older, the opposite is true. You become more focused, more professional in terms of things like looking after your body and more determined because you can see all the younger players coming up, looking for your place.
Of course Lothar Matthaus is always going to be associated with the 1990 World Cup. But does everyone immediately remember what titles Gunter Netzer, Johan Cruyff or Luis Figo won? Or do they also think about how those players played their football and how they led their teams?
But at [soccer] tournaments you tend to see novel, unanticipated trends coming through, with everyone watching each other like hawks and immediately copying anything new. What is really important for every team is to be aware of its own capabilities and find a style which plays to one's own strengths.
When I see Mario Gotze, his development does not go in the right direction. He has outstanding qualities, but he has not reached his potential for whatever reason. His charisma is not so good, fellow players, coaches, fans and the media do not feel that he is fighting against his current situation. He's more an introvert player.
When evaluating the players, too little emphasis is placed on the individual. Reaction times are measured, stress situations are simulated, sleep behaviour is analysed, eating behaviour, how the body reacts - everything is available. The control over the players has got out of hand. They are judged on this data, albeit subjectively. That's madness.