Swansea City captain Garry Monk has heaped praise upon former manager Brendan Rodgers ahead of the Swans' match against Liverpool.
Rodgers guided Swansea to the Premier League within a year of being appointed at the Liberty Stadium and led the side to a highly impressive debut season in the top flight before leaving to join Liverpool in the summer.
Sunday will mark the first league meeting between the two sides since Rodgers's switch, but Monk only had good things to say about the Northern Irishman.
"Rodgers was so clever. It wasn't just about football. He will know how to talk to someone. He will know what you are into, outside of football - whether it's golf, movies, cars or something like that. And he will tap into that. Not in a devious way. In a genuinely interested way, knowing it is going to get the best out of you and that you are going to think 'oh he knows about this'," Monk told the Independent.
"When you've got that sort of understanding with someone you want to do your best for someone like that. We love him to death after what he had achieved. He got us into the Premier League - tactically, physically, mentally he took us on to a different level than anything we had been on before.
"But after all we've been through with him, we don't want him to have one over on us now."
Swansea and Liverpool are separated by just one point in the Premier League table.
Barney Corkhill
