Ander Herrera has praised Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for the impact they had on him during his time at Manchester United.
Herrera, 33, spent five years at Old Trafford and worked under three different managers, with Van Gaal the one that brought him to the club in 2014. Herrera made the big-money move to United from Athletic Bilbao and became an instant hit at the Red Devils due to his tenacity, hard work and quality on the ball.
He scored eight times in 31 appearances during his first season at the Red Devils - the most prolific campaign of his career - and continued to improve under Van Gaal. The Dutchman left United at the end of the following season after the Red Devils lifted the FA Cup, with Herrera at the heart of their success.
When asked about his thoughts on Van Gaal, Herrera told United's official website : "Of course, I learned a lot from him. I came from Marcelo Bielsa before joining United. I was with Bielsa and I was with Ernesto Valverde as well. Bielsa, overall, as a coach was very offensive and you all know from his time at Leeds. He wants the team to all the time be attacking and all of the players moving around. He doesn't want one player stopped.
"I went to van Gaal and that was offensive football, he wants to attack, but he wanted to play a positional game and more every player in his position. It was the ball that had to move from player to player and that was, at the beginning, difficult for me.
"He told me a few times, 'why do you move all the time?', and I was used to it. I had come from a couple of managers where it was the player who moves. But after a couple of months, I got used to it. We won the FA Cup, we qualified for the Champions League and I improved. I learned a lot from him. It was a couple of years with Van Gaal and for me it was a good time."
Following Van Gaal's departure, Mourinho replaced him in the hot seat six months after he left rivals Chelsea. It proved to be a controversial appointment but there's no denying the Portuguese boss brought success to the club. He guided the Red Devils to second in the Premier League behind Chelsea and won the EFL Cup and Europa League.
Herrera had fond memories of Mourinho and said: "He is one of the greatest managers of all time. One of the most successful managers of all time. He discovered a new position for me, he made me a more defensive midfielder. In the first season, we won three trophies: the Community Shield, the Europa League and League Cup. And we qualified for the Champions League, so it was a very successful season.
"I became an important player for him as well. He made me go to the national team as well. That was a key moment in my career. Also with him, I got the fans' Player of the Season award and I am so thankful about our time together. He was also a little bit s***house [like me] as a coach, so it was a good time.
"It was a different football from Van Gaal, from Bielsa, from Valverde. I liked it, I liked to be part of the team, to help the team. That was more counter-attack football, a counter-attack team, but after that, at the end of the season, we won three trophies and qualified for the Champions League. It is not bad."
Mourinho, however, endured a miserable end to the 2017/18 season and United started the following campaign poorly - which resulted in his sacking. Solskjaer was given the job on a caretaker basis before he was appointed Red Devils permanently after guiding United to six successive wins.
Despite leaving the club at the end of the 18/19 season and experiencing just a matter of months under the Norwegian, Herrera was impressed with what he saw. He said of Solskjaer: He is one of the best people I have met in football. He was a legend but he was so humble to have a relationship with the players.
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"He was always ready to listen to what you had to say to help the team. For his work at the club, he didn't have the credit he deserves, honestly, or he didn't have the success that he deserved, because he was doing a great job at the club.
"When I left, I thought that he was going to be the man because of what I was feeling, what I was smelling in the club. He tried to keep me at the club but the discussions were not with him, they were with the board at the time, but, as I say before, he is one of the best people I have met in football."
Solskjaer was sacked by United in November 2021 and Ralf Rangnick came in as his interim replacement until the end of last season. Erik ten Hag left Ajax earlier this year to take over at Old Trafford ahead of this campaign.
