Johnson respects Rodgers more than Mourinho.
Liverpool defender Glen Johnson says Brendan Rodgers is a better man manager than Jose Mourinho and has admitted he found it hard to respect the Portuguese.
SEE ALSO: the top 10 best Chelsea players of all time.
The former West Ham and Chelsea full back played under Mourinho during the Special One’s first spell at Stamford Bridge – where Rodgers was also working at the time – and has revealed the Blues head-coach broke promises to him about playing time.
“It was difficult for me under Jose at Chelsea because there was a moment when he said I deserved to play on merit,” he told the Daily Mail.
“He said if I played well in the next game I would play the week after. I got man of the match so he couldn’t drop me. Then in the next game he said the same thing and I got man of the match again.
“Then we had another game and after that Barcelona. I remember speaking to my agent and saying, ‘He won’t play me in this game because if I play well then he has to play me against Barcelona’, and I knew that wasn’t going to happen.
“He didn’t play me in that game and from that moment I just lost it and thought, ‘Well, how am I meant to respect you now? It’s just finished’.
“Brendan wouldn’t do that. He’s shown that if you’re good enough you’re old enough and you’ll play in the big games if you deserve to. So in terms of man management, Brendan is definitely better.”
Mourinho has won titles at every club he’s managed and boasts Champions League success with Porto and Inter Milan.
Johnson conceded the 50-year-old was one of the best in the business but backed Rodgers to reach the same level.
“Mourinho is one of the best in the world and I would never say he’s not because of what happened between us. But Brendan is different to Jose, he has his own mentality and is definitely one of the best.”