Liverpool's on-loan Lille star Joe Cole says he loved playing for Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho at Chelsea.

It was under Mourinho, he says, that he played his best football. The former Chelsea manager would usually greet a man-of-the-match performance from Cole with public criticism of the performance for tactical or technical deficiencies.

"Looking back, I just think the man's a genius because he saw something in me that I didn't see in myself," Cole told the Mail on Sunday. "He saw that he could get more out of me than I was asking of myself, even if it meant getting under my skin and annoying me. That's why he's the best manager in the world. He knows what players need."