Wednesday 22 October 2014 11:46, UK
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.”
