Jose Mourinho will get Radamel Falcao back to his best - Michael Essien

Former Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien has praised Jose Mourinho's ability to bring the best out of his players and backed him to ensure Radamel Falcao is back to his best.

Essien, now with Panathinaikos, joined Mourinho's Chelsea from Lyon in 2005 and also played under the Portuguese during a loan spell at Real Madrid in 2012-13.

The Ghanaian said Mourinho's success was down to man-management and believes loan signing Falcao, who endured a highly disappointing spell at Manchester United last season, will recover the form that made him a star at Porto and Atletico Madrid.

"He knows how to get the best out of his players, how to say the right thing, how to motivate them," Essien told The Guardian. "He will get him back to the Falcao everybody knows."

Elaborating on Mourinho's management at Chelsea, the 32-year-old said: "We had players with big egos and big characters but at the same time they were good men as well.

"Mourinho has a big ego as well but in a good way. It was easy for him to manage those kind of players. He is still the same man. He's still tough."

Essien, who said he plans to return to England when his time in Greece ends, might have moved to the Premier League earlier in his career.

At the age of 17, he had a week-long trial with Manchester United, the team he supported as a boy, but Sir Alex Ferguson's attempts to pursue the deal were thwarted by work permit issues and Essien ended up moving to French team Bastia.

"I met Ferguson," he said. "It was a nice experience. I came with a friend, it was really nice for us to go there and see those big players. I just wanted to play in Europe."