Jose
Mourinho's ability to empathise with his players is what makes him a truly
great manager, according to Marco Materazzi.
Mourinho’s Chelsea side are five points clear at the top of the Premier
League and thrashed Maribor 6-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Materazzi played under the Portuguese for two years at Inter during which
time the pair won an historic treble consisting of the Serie A title, Coppa
Italia and UEFA Champions League.
The Italian is now player-manager at Indian Super League side Chennaiyin and
Materazzi admits Mourinho has heavily influenced his own managerial style.
“Jose Mourinho is the best manager I have player under,” Materazzi told Sky
Sports.
“He is a true person, a 100 percent true person and that for me is the first
quality you must have if you want to be a manager.
“He never lied to the guys while he was at Inter. If something needed to be
said he would tell the players to their faces.
“He’s an excellent motivator, a good strategist and a great manager. He
creates empathy with the players and that is so important because when you
have 25 players in a squad it can be difficult to keep them together as one
every day.”
Materazzi had a brief spell playing in the Premier League for Everton and
explained why he had to return to his homeland less than a year after moving
to Merseyside.
“It was just for 10 months, but I wanted to return to Italy to play for the
national team because when I was in the city of Liverpool playing for
Everton it was a very different situation to now,” Materazzi said.
“As far as the national team manager was concerned if you didn’t play in
Italy you couldn’t play for the national team. Now the situation is better
for Italian players who are playing abroad.
“If that hadn’t been the case I think I could have stayed at Everton. I
chose to play for Everton and I loved that jersey. The people were fantastic
with me but I wanted to play in the World Cup.
“To do that I needed to change but that’s life.”
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