John Toshack Quotations

We have played three qualifying games now since we took over and they have all been close, and although we are disappointed to have lost to England we are still confident of doing something against the Poles.

Obviously match fitness is something else but that's a problem we have had since this season started. We would expect to start with him.

Poland are very good. We did our best but there is no doubt that by far the best side won.You would expect England to win their home games, though.

There are one or two players with a few niggles, so we will need to take a look at them before we decide what to do,

He's played every game for Manchester City this season including two hours at Doncaster,

I think it's the right time for me - personally I think football management is about timing and being in the right place at the right time.

It has been hard for some of them, stepping up from the lower divisions where they are playing a lot more games, is tough.

I will now not see these players for about four months so there is no point in not saying how I feel. I have never been one for avoiding the issue,

It is a time I feel most vulnerable because of the decisions I have to make regarding the long-term future of this project. I know I have the experience to do better and I know I must do better.

Mark is an experienced performer and at the moment fitness wise we don't see a problem with him,

Maybe if there's a communication breakdown, it's between the Blackburn medics and their manager,

Winning all the time is not necessarily good for the team.

We caused quite a bit of trouble on the counter attack in our last game away from home, but unfortunately we weren't able to finish them off and take any of the half a dozen chances we created which is not normal,

We are looking for a positive result for ourselves. If that helps England so be it, but we are only concerned with ourselves,

We knew that they would be looking to pull the ball back for the midfielders to hit. We'd worked on that.

The players know what this game is all about. They've been looking forward to it coming around and they know the quality of player they are up against.

The players know us a lot better and we can say things to them without them getting offended,

We all have our pride to play for and we will do our best here, and we will stick to a similar pattern before maybe changing things around for Northern Ireland and Azerbaijan in our final two qualifiers,

We finished the game quite strongly but we couldn't get onto the end of anything in the last third,

England have a lot of quality in a lot of areas, particularly midfield. But they have still got to prove that they can be one of the top six. Against 60 per cent of sides, some of the things they did against us they'll be OK with. But against the top four or five sides they may just have to have a re-think.

I should advise anyone coming up to the match to come early and not leave until the end, otherwise they might miss something.

The six of them did so well with us that I told Brian, 'I will keep the lot of them and send you three of the others from the squad! You can have them instead'.

As a Welshman I share the view that we want to beat England to dent their chances of qualifying, but then again I want to do the same thing to Poland next week.

Although we lacked a little bit in quality, we did go all the way to the final whistle looking to try and get that goal. I was pleased with that.

It was always going to be hard but it may even be a bit harder now.

It's a difficult process but hopefully a year or 18 months down the line they will be experienced enough, know how we work and we can put the pieces into the puzzle as we feel fit,

It's a lot easier to destroy than to create and if you look at Azerbaijan's games they're difficult to beat,

It's easy to praise Ryan, he is always such an influential player and he scored two special goals. But I was delighted for David Vaughan. He is a clever, skilful player and he rarely gives the ball away. I asked him to play in an advanced role and he was outstanding all night.

If you look at the goals he scored, including the best move of the match, it's a perfect example for any youngster to follow,

He's an exceptional talent, a truly exceptional talent,

We don't man-mark anybody. I have never, ever done it in 27 years as a manager and I would never do it,

Rooney has those things that you cannot teach players - the positions he takes up just behind the front men is a European trait,

What I'm not in the habit of doing, and I'm not going to do, is go around cap in hand pleading with players to play for their country,

I've been very fortunate and privileged as a player and manager - I've been successful and picked up a lot of knowledge and experience,

Winning all the time is not necessarily good.

It's one thing to tell a front man to drop off and fill in the hole behind, but if they don't know why they are doing it, it is not an easy thing to teach. But Rooney's just got it.

When we have four or five players out it's very difficult to get any continuity at this stage in our development. If I pull the blanket over my head my feet get cold, and if I push it over my feet my head gets cold.

I don't like champagne, I don't smoke cigars, I haven't any real jewellery at all, apart from the 8 pieces of gold I picked up at Anfield, the most important relationship at a football club is not between the manager and the chairman, but the players and the fans.