Zenit is yet to play its first game under the new boss Mancini, but, the skipper of the club Domenico Criscito is showering praises on him already.

Mancini has been roped in by Zenit on the place of Mircea Lucescu whose solitary season in charge was not very successful. Under him, the Lions failed to make it to Europe as they finished no. 3 in the standings of the top tier.

Criscito is backing Mancini to have a greater impact in comparison to his predecessor as he reveals that the team is training much better under the Italy native.

Criscito is of the view that Lucescu was quite good in his own rights, but, nobody is as good as the Italians when it comes to Football management especially from the tactical viewpoint.

Criscito reckons that the difference with Mancini is that he has brought the theory of the Italian brand of Football with him and he is emphasizing a lot on tactics and planning.

Criscito also says that Mancini is known to be someone who takes charge of the big clubs and the fact that he has come to Zenit shows that Zenit is amongst the biggest clubs.

As per Criscito, as a playing group, Zenit has always been ambitious for more and more trophies at all levels and the addition of Mancini who has the experience of winning trophies in top leagues is going to help fulfil that ambition to great effects.

On asked if he had any prior conversation with Mancini before the latter agreed to take up the job at Zenit, Criscito says that he did have and he let Mancini know whatever he wanted to know regarding Zenit’s project, the culture of Zenit and also Petersburg as a place.