Creating your method

I have been lucky to work with some fantastic coaches, including Pep Guardiola, Marcello Lippi, Carlo Ancelotti and Manuel Pellegrini. 

They are all fantastic managers, but also fantastic human beings. You can learn many things from them, for sure. Pellegrini and Ancelotti are quite similar in terms of the way they try to behave with the team. I had two years with Lippi at Juventus — a fantastic experience. And then also with Pep. Tactically, I always said that he is a genius.

Manuel Pellegrini was the one who suggested I could be a manager when I finished as a player. He signed me when he was manager of Málaga. Before that, I had spent four fantastic years in Spain, with Sevilla. It was fantastic because, when I arrived in Seville, the club had never won any European trophy. In my time there, we won two Europa Leagues in a row.

Since then they have become masters of that competition, winning seven in total, but it was wonderful to be part of the first two. Also, personally, because I managed to score two goals in the first final, against Middlesbrough.

My wife is from Seville, and my son was born there, so it is like a second home. I even went back to Sevilla as an assistant coach, when they decided to bring in Vincenzo Montella as manager. 

When my career as a player was close to finishing, I started to think about becoming a manager. You realise for yourself when you are close to the end, and you have to decide what you want to do in the future. I was excited to start my journey as a coach. It was quite clear that my idea was to be where I am now.

"WHEN THEY LOST THE BALL, THE WAY THEY REACTED WAS UNBELIEVABLE"

In my opinion, in football you fall in love with one idea of how the game is played. With that idea, you try to analyse and to create your own idea, your own method. This is what has happened with me. I fell in love with one way of playing. 

When I was still a player, I faced Barcelona when Pep was there. I realised when I was on the pitch that something different happened every time we faced them. In terms of the way they moved the ball and the way they were on the pitch. Also, when they lost the ball, the way they reacted was unbelievable. 

So I fell in love with that idea. Since that moment, I started to try to understand and to create my own idea. I started to analyse the game for myself, to try to understand the way they were playing. 

I worked with Pep at Manchester City. First, as head coach of their elite development squad, and then as first-team assistant manager. I think, for every manager or coach who has worked with academy teams, you can try your ideas without the same pressure to win as there is in the first team. That was the case for me at Manchester City’s academy. It was also very good for me because I was very close to the first team. I had the chance to work with my ideas, to improve my ideas, but at the same time to watch the first team working and to see and learn new things.

I was always clear that I wanted to be a manager. They knew that at Manchester City. I felt this inside, and this is the reason why I came to Leicester City. It’s an unbelievable club, a big club in England. I can see that here we have the tools to work well. When you see what they reached in the last 10 years, winning the Premier League, FA Cup and Community Shield, it is unbelievable. 

We aim to bring this club where they belong, which is the Premier League, but the reality is that we are in the Championship. So we need to make a big, big effort for this season.

"The Championship is a fantastic experience, because most of the managers try to face us in a different way"

You don’t stop learning. We try always to evolve. To be honest, since we started at Leicester, we already tried to change. You try to find a solution, but the opposition also try to find ways to beat your solution. So you need to find a new solution. All the time it is dynamic, so we never stop trying to evolve.

When I did my final coaching badge in Italy, for the final examination I prepared something on the similarity between the chess player and football manager. If a piece is moved in chess, how can you adjust? If the opponent is trying to do something, as a football manager you adjust. These kinds of things, for me, are very similar.

We prepare one game that most of the time is the correct one for how the opposition plays. But sometimes you prepare because the opposition are playing always the same way — then, for that game, they want to surprise you and they change. In that moment, you need to adapt quickly. This year, that has already happened a few times.

For instance, most of the teams don’t normally press man-to-man. Then, when we face them, they try to be more aggressive, man-to-man. So we have prepared thinking that they are not going to press us man-to-man, and then they do. Then we needed to adapt immediately. 

Sometimes it has happened with the structure we face. Preston were playing always with a line of five, and they faced us with a line of four. So we need to adapt quickly because most of the teams try to change against us.

The Championship is a fantastic experience, because most of the managers try to face us in a different way. For us, as a staff, it is a good experience, because we can improve. At the same time, it is 46 games — probably we are going to play every three days until February, March. It is difficult, but it is what it is and we need to adapt.

"we can control the way we want to play, but unfortunately we cannot control the results"

It has completely changed from when I was at West Bromwich in 1998. In 25 years, you can see that football changed completely — not only in the Championship or the Premier League, but in every country. Now it is completely different. The timing, the way teams try to play.

For sure, 25 years ago, probably you could find a few teams trying to play. But most of them, they were direct football, long ball, second ball, cross. Now you can find most of them try to play in a different way.

My idea with football is to try as much as we can to control the game, having the ball as much as we can. That means most of the time you are playing in the opponents’ half. This was the first target that we had when we started the season at Leicester. To convince the team that this is the way we want to play. And then, from there, you can start to build concepts and to add solutions.

Since day one, we tried to instil this idea of keeping the ball and trying to play in the opponents’ half, to control the game. More or less, every game so far, we did that. 

That doesn’t mean you are going to win all the games, of course. We always say the same: we can control the way we want to play, but unfortunately we cannot control the results. This is for many reasons, of course. But since we started, we have tried to instil this idea, and the players have been fantastic, because they are on board with that. They are happy, and they enjoy every day.

In this moment, the ambition and the dream for us is to bring this club and this city, these fans, back where they belong. Because when you achieve something big like winning the Premier League, the FA Cup and Community Shield, and then suddenly you're relegated, that is not a good feeling. 

Bringing this club back where they belong is the main focus. Then I will feel happy for the club.