By Rune Gjerulff@runegjerulff

Claudio Pizarro recalls how he felt about playing under Mourinho and Guardiola

Werder Bremen veteran Claudio Pizarro has highlighted the strengths of José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola.
Claudio Pizarro.
Claudio Pizarro.Photo: Niklas B, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
During his career, Werder Bremen's Claudio Pizarro, 40, has worked with some high-profile coaches - including José Mourinho, who lost his job as Manchester United manager in December, and Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.

In an interview with dfb.de, the veteran has looked back at how it felt to play under the two famous coaches.

Pizarro, who only got to work with Mourinho for a few months at Chelsea in 2007, believes the biggest strength of the Portuguese coach is that he's good at filling his players with his confidence.

"At that time, he was one of the best coaches in the world. He still is today. What made him so strong was his good relationship with his players. He was good at giving them confidence," Pizarro said.

Later in his career, Pizarro spent two seasons under Pep Guardiola at Bayern München - and the 40-year-old learned a lot from the Catalan coach.

"Every coach has his own style. But Pep Guardiola is certainly one of the best coaches. His training was very special. I learned a lot from him, because he works very disciplined tactically. His motto was that the best defence is to have the ball yourself," Pizarro explained.

Pizarro is under contract at Werder Bremen until the end of the season, and he's currently not sure if he wants to continue his career.

"I don't know yet. First of all, I have to wait and see how I feel physically at the end of the season and which plans the club have," he said when asked about his plans after the season.

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