Listen to Mark Pulisic describe his former teammate – and longtime friend – Bob Lilley’s playing style, you quickly get an appreciation for why Lilley has become the successful coach he has been throughout the years in the USL.

“Bob was one of the fittest players I’ve ever been around, I’d ever seen,” Pulisic said of the current Rochester Rhinos Head Coach. “He was very driven and determined. He’s someone who was very valuable to any team he was on just because of the desire and his willingness to work hard.

“He cared so much for the game, he had that much passion, so it definitely would overshadow some of his other limitations as a player. He was always oh so fit and so confident, and a hard worker.”

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Flip the script with Lilley as he talks about Pulisic, now his assistant coach with the Rhinos, and something immediately stands out.

“He had a nose for the goal,” Lilley said of Pulisic. “Really quick release, strong, he’d score, get into the back post, toe-pokes – anything loose he was always hunting, always active in and around the box. He was a good finisher. He’d get in areas in and around the box and tuck balls away. [He] held the ball really well. He was a target player, even in college, [with a] low center of gravity. He was quick over five yards, but he was powerful, had tree trunks for legs, but he was a tank and could kind of post up and hold the ball.”

As much as Pulisic will bring as part of Lilley’s staff from his playing and coaching experience, Pulisic is looking forward to working alongside Lilley again as he reacclimatizes to coaching in the U.S. As hard a worker as he was as a player, Lilley has been just as diligent as a Head Coach in the USL. His record of 220 wins, 114 losses and 87 draws is exceptional, and Pulisic believes it comes from the attention to detail Lilley brings to every player.

“He’s a perfectionist,” said Pulisic. “He puts expectations on players that players have never had before with other coaches. He’s able to draw the best out of players. Where another coach might be able to get 60 or 70 percent out of a player and be OK with it, Bob’s not OK with it.

“Bob wants to make players as good as he feels they can be, what their top end is, so he works hard to find the top end in players even if they’re not the best players, or naturally gifted. To me, that’s how he is as a person. It transfers into his coaching philosophy because he doesn’t settle for mediocrity.”

Together again as colleagues, Lilley and Pulisic look like forming a formidable team for the upcoming season.

“When you know someone so well and you’re good friends, when you have the same type of vision and the same goals for coaching, it’s been quite an easy transition,” said Pulisic. “We trust each other, and obviously in a coaching staff that has to be the No. 1 priority.”