Francesco Farioli has his admirers across Europe - and Liverpool's Arne Slot is one of them.
Slot had a wonderful first season in English football, wrestling the title back from Manchester City as the Reds lifted it for the first time in five years.
He did so in style with the Anfield club runaway leaders and earning plenty of praise in the process.
However, the Dutchman had one eye on what was happening back in his homeland as Ajax threw away a nine-point lead to allow PSV to win the Eredivisie, his old club Feyenoord sitting third.
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Farioli had instilled confidence and vigour back at Ajax after a poor campaign before he came in, finishing fifth. But he decided to quit after that title collapse.
Slot defended him, insisting PSV had more firepower up front which is out of the coach's control. And he also hit out at claims he plays defensive football.
The Liverpool boss said: "You can do very well as a manager, but in the end you have to have players who make the difference.
"Example: from what I've seen, I think Francesco Farioli is a very good manager. I've heard that he was only defensive and all that, but when I watched Ajax, I always saw a good build-up from the back, where they could always find a free man and put the opponents under good pressure.
"That's what you influence as a manager. Farioli was just unlucky that PSV and Feyenoord had a lot of much, much better strikers than he did."
