We must believe we can score in every moment - at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the game.
— Nuno Espirito Santo
We work on our set pieces for every opponent. It's a moment of the game that requires a lot of hard work, defensive and offensively. We try to invest our time in set pieces.
We're trying to improve everyone. It doesn't matter if he cost £10 million, £15 million, £200 million. There is always space to do something better.
You have to be ready for anything and everything and accept everything the way things are.
My interpretation of football is to stay humble, work hard, and things will come.
Representing your country is what you want.
We will never play for a draw, as it doesn't make sense. Come on, you make a 0-0 plan, you get one goal after five minutes, and it's finished. The players look and say, 'Now what?'
Football is an emotional game, and that is why we love it, but part of the work I have to do is to control that emotion both for me and my players.
I love everything about football.
This is the way I look at the future: day by day.
I am not obsessed about making an impression on the Premier League.
I respect the people who work with me, and I respect the crowds in the stadiums - I just live the game and try to advise my players in the right moments. If that means I have to raise my arms and jump, I will raise my arms and jump if that is the best way to help them.
You cannot have a situation where you think that if you want to attack, then you play this formation, and if you want to defend, then you play this formation.
I would say, 24/7, I am thinking about football.
You have to love your job.
The first introduction I had with English football was in the FA Cup in the early '80s.
When you try to build an identity based on one idea, the easy part is to stick with the good things that you do.
I will not ever change my principles. I will not do it. We have a 'how.' This is the most important thing we have - the 'how' we do things. Our style, our ideas, our principles with our mistakes that we have to correct.
It's very hard to rank performances. It's very difficult, and it doesn't really matter if you rank performances.
Life is continually changing. This is what makes people better.
When you have someone that manages, coaches you, and you follow, and you believe, and you do everything that you can because you believe in that idea in your leader, that stays forever. That is the impact Jose Mourinho had on me.
There is no point staying on the past.
To be called up to the national team is what you want.
I was late, as a player, many times. If you have bad traffic, what are you doing to do? Make a miracle? Sometimes it happens.
I know that if I have come to Britain, I must adapt, and I will try to.
What we are here for is to improve, to work as a team, stay humble and work hard, trying to achieve the best performance that we can in every game.
When you win, you want to repeat it.
I want to build a team who can play home and away the same.
People say that the most difficult part is scoring the goal. But what I have to do is get the player there. If you focus on the goal instead of the how, then suddenly the chances start to decrease.
If you embrace a project that will require time and patience, then you need something to work on. So the first step of the project is to create an identity. If you don't have an identity, then today you want this player and tomorrow another one. If you have an idea and a shape, then this is how you develop an identity.
Of course you learn a lot as a player when you pay attention to managers when they speak to you.
Every team and club has its own personal goals and objectives, and I'm only concerned about mine.
This is one of the challenges we have: knowing that playing without the ball is just as important as when you have the ball.
I bought some land in Portugal, on the highest hill in Guimaraes, because I pictured that I wanted to build my house there. I said, 'What a perfect place this would be,' but I forgot to ask the council if I could build a house there. When I did, they said, 'No!'
In Portugal, seeing a black cat is a bad sign; it's bad luck. But they tell me if it crosses from left to right, it's good luck. But I don't like black cats!
The barrier of communication is terrible if you don't speak the language. You cannot reach a player with a translator.
I truly believe you have to take things as they come, win or lose, and keep believing in how you want to do things and how you want to play.
When you speak about Jose Mourinho, personally, he has an impact on me.
Time is always important; sometimes time doesn't always go along with patience. It is always important. You have to deal with it. It's part of football. Every decision is judged.
All I do is challenge the players to push themselves to their limit.
Principe is paradise.
Even when you are not having the ball, you have to stay consistent, organised, and that's what keeps you in the game.
When you have a small, balanced squad, you can work better. First of all everyone is involved in every squad list, a meeting can be a good training session.
One of the things that is most difficult for a manager is reversing bad results and keeping going.
Football is a passionate game, and the emotions are intense. As long you respect the people around you, I don't see any problem with that.
The beginning of everything is our defensive organisation. The clean sheet is always the first objective that we have in the game. Always.
I try to distract with other things, but in my mind, it is always the game, especially the team, the shape, my players, what can I do, what is tomorrow, what can I give to them to improve them.
If you love your job the way I do and the way we do as a team and what we want to achieve, you have to love every aspect of it.
As a kid, Liverpool was big for us.
Knowing that the teams in front of us are sometimes better than you, you have to recognise that and be humble. It's part of the game.
