Zinedine Zidane has revealed "new talents" as a manager, and has handled Cristiano Ronaldo better than his Real Madrid predecessor Rafael Benitez.
That's the opinion of his former France international teammate Bixente Lizarazu, who added that Zidane didn't need to be vocal on the pitch as a player because he did all his talking with his feet.
"I can see how clever he's been with Cristiano Ronaldo, unlike Rafael Benitez, who criticised him when he arrived," Lizarazu told FIFA.com.
"That's not the kind of thing you do with your best player, who gets you 50 goals a season."
Zidane took over as Real Madrid manager a year ago and has already won three trophies, including the 2015-16 UEFA Champions League. Real are four points clear at the top of La Liga, and five ahead of Barcelona, with a game in hand.
"From the outside, I find his way of communicating incredible. He's clear and very much at ease with the media and you can tell he has the support of every player," Lizarazu said.
"I think he's revealed new talents that he didn't necessarily have to use when he was a player, or he just had to perform well on the pitch to get his team-mates to up their game. He didn't need to be very communicative because he communicated so well with his feet."
Former left-back Lizarazu earned 97 caps for Les Bleus between 1992 and 2004. Like Zidane, he was a member of the France side who won the 1998 World Cup.