Mauricio Pellegrino

Mauricio Pellegrino.
Mauricio Pellegrino.
Foto

Valencia CF. Seasons 2001-2004.

"The years I spent with Rafa Benítez in Valencia, Liverpool and Inter Milan... were very useful to me, it was a great learning curve. And by his side I grew up very much".

Mundo Deportivo. July 2016.


"Rafa was one of the people who changed a little bit the way that the managers teach the player. When I was a player, we were always told :‘You have to do this, you have to do that, you have to tackle, to defend’. But Rafa was different. Rafa asked the players how they felt and he completely changed the mentality. At a pedagogic level, Rafa was the best coach in my life. In terms of being a professional also, it was really nice to work with him as a player and then as his assistant for three years at Liverpool and Inter Milan. For me, it was like a Masters.

"We were 15 days preparing the final (of Istambul), preparing how we press, how we attack, set pieces... And in 30 minutes they killed us. And Rafa changed everything. For this reason there is something more important than organisation and planning - it is imagination. He changed everything".

The Telegraph. August 2017.