A Quote by Nemanja Matic
When I arrived at Benfica I'd been playing like a No. 10 in the team, but the first thing the coach did was tell me: 'You are going to be a defensive midfielder here.'
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My dream when I was younger was always to be a Benfica player. So when I arrived on the first team to work with a coach that didn't count on me, who put me as a left back, of course I was a bit sad.
I have already worked Dunga. He helped me at Internacional, making me a more defensive midfielder. But I can play as a first or second midfielder, like I do at Shakhtar.
When I first arrived at Napoli, I was the ball boy, which meant that I got to watch as the legends trained. Then, once I joined the youth team as a young teenager, I was a midfielder just like Tardelli.
I was a No. 9 for so long and that's what I knew. And I think, me as an attacking midfielder, or any kind of midfielder, I should be in and around the box and have that mindset that I'm going to score and help my team as much as possible.
All players rolled into one: from defensive midfielder to attacking midfielder to attacker. I want to take the qualities from everyone. I'd like to get to the level where I have everything: Vieira, Deschamps, Zidane, Ronaldinho, Henry, Ronaldo. It wouldn't be bad, that.
As a coach, you've got to do what's best for the team. If guys don't like it, they're going to leave. If they stay and don't like it, well, your team's going to suck anyway. Even if this happens, you still have to do it. You can't coach worrying about any individual.
Luckily for me, Hereford restarted their youth team. I trained a few times with the first team before my first stroke of luck, when the club's youth team coach Pete Beadle, someone who knew me well, became the first-team manager.
I'd been away for about 10 days, and literally the first thing I did, even though it sounds very... it just shows you what a boring person I actually am, because the first thing I did was kiss my wife and hug my kid, then I turned on 'Fable 2' just to see how much gold I'd accrued over 10 days.
The most important thing is to be a midfielder first, not scoring goals. You have to make the game, make an assist for the team, and if you can score, it's a plus for the team.
I come from a Napoli team who scored 104 goals. Do you think I'm going to be hyper-defensive with Real Madrid? A team that creates chances and is great in possession is not defensive.
Dad's very hard on me and is my biggest critic, so 10 is always going to be the target. He has said that my whole life. If you are averaging 10 goals as a midfielder, you are having a good season.
In my country, they used to call players who play in my position a defensive midfielder, but it is not defensive.
Around the age of 14, I was very discouraged from a coach. It was my first youth club team while playing soccer. She told me at the time that I wasn't good enough to play on the team, that I would never get into the game.
Cologne was my big team, my favourite team. I trained one week in Cologne, and they asked me to sign for Cologne. At 17 or 18, the coach asked me to go the first-team training ground. I was lucky to have that coach.
That's the number one thing for a guy for a new coach coming in. You've really got to buy into the system and believe it's going to work because, if you don't, it's going to cause conflict, and you're not always going to be on the same page as the other guys on the team or with the coach.
I like to sing because my mother was a singer. She sang to me all the time, so I learned to love singing. I did have a career as little 10-year-old George Benson. I made my first record as a vocalist, but I've been playing guitar since I was 9.
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