"I knew he was good but I didn't expect him to be this good," Zola said, adding that he has been overwhelmed by the meticulou...
"I knew he was good but I didn't expect him to be this good," Zola said, adding that he has been overwhelmed by the meticulous nature of Sarri's preparation. "What you see on the pitch is the result of the huge work he does behind the scenes, which he does and the whole team around him does.
"It is about paying attention to everything you do and presenting it to the players. The players most of the time when they go onto the pitch, they know everything they have to do. It becomes easier for them to play."
Zola played under a series of big names and big personalities in Italy and England -- Carlo Ancelotti, Ruud Gullit, Gianluca Vialli, Claudio Ranieri -- but his career on the pitch gave him limited chances to work with tacticians as cerebral as Sarri. He is relishing the chance to make up for lost time.
"If you go back to the start of my story, I started like crazy to go in my first experience in the Premier League with West Ham," he said. "It went well but I think I missed a lot of things in my experience in management. I am catching up with this experience."
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