We investigate the interaction of strongly correlated electrons with phonons in the frame of the Hubbard-Holstein model. The electron-phonon interaction is considered to be strong and is an important parameter of the model besides the Coulomb repulsion of electrons and band filling. This interaction with the nondispersive optical phonons has been transformed to the problem of mobile polarons by using the canonical transformation of Lang and Firsov. A new diagram technique is used in order to handle the strong Coulomb repulsion of the electrons, which leads to a closed set of integral equations for the irreducible on-site many-particle Green’s functions. The coupling to the phonons leads to an essential renormalization of the one- and two-particle irreducible Green’s functions. It also influences the parameters which control the metal-insulator or superconducting phase transition. In addition we find a collective mode of phonon clouds which surround the polarons. The physics of the emission and absorption of this mode by the polarons has been investigated.