Johan Cruyff RIP

[HarryBosch]

Off topic? He had a soft spot for Latics, not many people know that.

 

Leave these quotes up a day or two eh mods...

 

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Choose the best player for every position, and you’ll end up not with a strong XI, but with 11 strong 1’s.

4. In my teams, the goalie is the first attacker, and the striker the first defender.

5. Why couldn’t you beat a richer club? I’ve never seen a bag of money score a goal.

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

7. 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.

8. 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.

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

10. 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.

11. Before I make a mistake, I don’t make that mistake.

12. 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.

13. 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.

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

15. I’m not religious. In Spain all 22 players make the sign of the cross before they enter the pitch. If it works all matches must therefore end in a draw.

16. We must make sure their worst players get the ball the most. You’ll get it back in no time.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. Surviving the first round is never my aim. Ideally, I’d be in one group with Brazil, Argentina and Germany. Then I’d have lost two rivals after the first round. That’s how I think. Idealisitic.

20. 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.

21. Quality without results is pointless. Results without quality is boring.

22. 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.

23. 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.

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

25. If I wanted you to understand it, I would have explained it better.

[Bristolatic]

What a sad loss. Incredibly gifted and those quotes show what a student of the game he was. RIP Johann and condolences to your family.

[HarryBosch]

Hard to be sad when one so great dies. Just in awe, glad he lived & grateful for having been able to watch and read his work....

[HarryBosch]

"Johan Cruyff painted the chapel, and Barcelona coaches since merely restore or improve it" - Guardiola.(or "Pep" to those of you on first name terms with him)

[HarryBosch]

“Jack [Charlton] makes out he is not really interested in football, and tells the world he’s going fishing. But we know what he’s thinking about when he’s fishing. Football.”

 

“Liverpool are like Bayern Munich, they are all about name and prestige. In footballing terms, we are talking about two horrible sides. In my opinion, a team is horrible if it is incapable of putting three passes together” – on the Champions League and Uefa Cup winners of 2001.

 

“I only decided to become a manager when I was told I couldn’t.”

“Look, the thing about [Filippo] Inzaghi is he can’t actually play football at all. He’s just always in the right position.”

“We showed the world you could enjoy being a footballer; you could laugh and have a fantastic time. I represent the era which proved that attractive football was enjoyable and successful, and good fun to play too.”

“You play football with your head, and your legs are there to help you.”

“Italians can’t win the game against you, but you can lose the game against the Italians.”

In 2012, Cruyff picked his all-time XI, although current players like Lionel Messi were not considered. The team, in a 3-4-3 formation, was: Lev Yashin; Carlos Alberto, Franz Beckenbauer, Ruud Krol; Alfredo Di Stefano, Pep Guardiola, Bobby Charlton, Piet Keizer; Garrincha, Pele, Diego Maradona.

“Pythagoras in boots. Few have been able to exert, both physically and mentally, such mesmeric control on a match from one penalty area to another” – David Winner, author of Brilliant Orange.

“He was at the heart of a revolution with his football. Ajax changed football and he was the leader of it all. If he wanted he could be the best player in any position on the pitch” – Eric Cantona.

“The proudest moment of my career. I thought I’d win the ball for sure, but he tricked me. I was not humiliated. I had no chance. Cruyff was a genius” – Jan Olsson, the Sweden defender who was tricked by the Cruyff Turn at the 1974 World Cup.

Edited March 24, 2016 by HarryBosch

[NewBlue]

Look, the thing about [Filippo] Inzaghi is he cant actually play football at all. Hes just always in the right position.

Why have you edited Inzaghi's name in for Rhys Murphy?

[GlossopLatic]

Before my time but he was one slick bastard of a footballer surely the closest thing the Dutch have had to a James Bond.

[L1onheartNew]

Before my time but he was one slick bastard of a footballer surely the closest thing the Dutch have had to a James Bond.

Never shaken, never stirred. The quintessential footballing gentleman. Pure class. Pure genius.

 

As it is Easter, he just may well be back on Monday.

Edited March 25, 2016 by L1onheartNew

[Bunty Blue]

An unparalleled elegance......and the bewildered Italian defender when the Cruyff turn was revealed, is priceless....

[bigfatjoe1]

Watched him on telly in my early football years. What an elegant, creative genius of a player. One of THE all time greats.

Holland and Ajax - total football. Still have a soft spot for both.

[24hoursfromtulsehill]

Of all those quotes the one about Inzaghi is the most accurate, and the one from the Swedish bloke who did what 100% of all humanity and animal life would've done in those conditions is the saddest and most life affirming.

[HarryBosch]

[tringerlatic42]

Thank you that was 25 minutes of joy and magic from a true all time great

[Stagger Lee]

Ahhhhh the memories!

 

 

Quickness of mind coupled with unbelievable acceleration.

 

 

Big call but I think he could have even scored goals in the current Oldham team

[Stagger Lee]

BTW - that 'penalty pass' he scored - is that still legal?

[dave_ragg1984]

BTW - that 'penalty pass' he scored - is that still legal?

 

 

Yes. Barcelona did it a few weeks back.

[Monty Burns]

BTW - that 'penalty pass' he scored - is that still legal?

Jesus!!!!!!!! The mere thought of your world scares me.