The only improvement I know in football is through work, it is the only way for the team to grow.

Football is everything, mind, heart, talent.

I'm very happy in charge at Atletico. The squad give me commitment, talent and style.

We play to win, with the arms that we have.

Football is like boxing because you have to know when it is time to attack.

It is always good and important that the strikers score.

A coach I admire? Jurgen Klopp. No doubt.

It's difficult to get ready to face a player like Cristiano Ronaldo. He's a goal animal.

If there is one thing I am, it is very hard-headed. If I want something, I go after it - and I go after it ad nauseum.

Of course, becoming champions is something we all want, but I think that the best 'championship' for a manager is to see players like Koke, Lucas Hernandez, Angel Correa - lads who have come up from all the way down in the lower divisions - become professionals of a high standard.

As a coach, the greatest passion you can have is for improving players.

I was 27 or 28 years old when I really decided I would become a manager. I would go home from training at Lazio, grab a folder and pretend I was taking a training session. You know the way kids imagine things, when they are playing? I would do the same as an adult, playing at being a manager.

Catania was a real learning curve. I grew amid difficulties. In terms of courage and ideas, a lot about my Atleti comes from Italy.

Football is wonderful because no one is right: there's no absolute truth.

Motivation should come from within each player; if not, it's difficult to get results.

Defeats are always tough, whatever you have lost, and they affect me the same way they affect anyone who loses a match - no more or less.

Fans can't score a goal but they have energy.

Football is marvellous and there are countless ways to play and to win.

I'm a believer that emotions can move mountains, that spirit alone can trump budgets.

When the opposition team sense that there is fear, they take advantage without mercy.

There is no such thing as revenge in football, or in life for that matter, just new opportunities.

I think there is an idea, a unique essence to every club.

As a player, you can be more spontaneous and instinctive, but now as a coach I have to find a psychological balance within the team.

A final is a final, and is motivation in itself.