Pellegrino got ‘Masters’ degree from mentor Rafa

SOUTHAMPTON boss Mauricio Pellegrino has lauded Rafa Benitez as “the best coach” he has come across – describing working under the Newcastle United manager as “like earning a Masters” degree.

The Argentinian won two Spanish titles under Benitez’s tutelage at Valencia as a player, before joining his mentor as an assistant coach at both Liverpool and Inter Milan.

Pellegrino believes the key difference between Benitez and the previous managers he had worked under was the way the ex-Real Madrid manager empowered his players. Rather than simply telling players what they should be doing, he encouraged them to take control out on the pitch.

For Pellegrino, who is now a manager in his own right and took over at St Mary’s Stadium earlier this summer, it was a revelation to witness Benitez’s methods first hand.

“Rafa was one of the people who changed a little bit the way that the managers teach the player,” the ex-Barcelona and Valencia centre-back explained during an interview with The Telegraph.

“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 his assistant for three years at Liverpool and Inter Milan. For me it was like a Masters.”

One of the moments when Benitez displayed his managerial intellect – or “imagination” as he terms it – most clearly was at half-time during Liverpool’s famous Champions League triumph in Istanbul.

Benitez abandoned more than two weeks’ worth of preparation to introduce a 3-4-3 system which was practically alien to his players and the Reds famously fought back from 3-0 down to lift the trophy after a penalty shootout.

For Pellegrino, it was a masterclass in ingenuity.

“Rafa changed everything. For this reason there is something more important than organisation and planning – it is imagination. He changed everything.

“We played 3-4-3 and we scored three goals and then we changed again and Steven Gerrard played at full-back.”