LORENZO Amoruso today said Mark Hughes has managed to restore harmony in the dressing room at Blackburn Rovers after replacing Graeme Souness as the club's new boss.

The former Rangers star has admitted that a rift did exist between Souness and several leading members of the Rovers squad during the latter stages of his Ewood reign.

And the outspoken Italian also conceded that some of his former manager's training methods were slightly old hat compared to some of the game's more forward thinkers.

But according to Amoruso, Hughes has successfully managed to pour oil on troubled waters during his first month at the helm.

And the players have responded to the Welshman's new ideas with a fresh enthusiasm as they seek to address the slump in Rovers' fortunes.

Referring to the public bust-ups that marred Souness's reign, Amoruso said: "Everybody knows that Graeme had problems with some players.

"Some players didn't like the manager's attitude and the manager didn't like the attitude of some of the players, so the truth is always somewhere in the middle.

"You can't really judge one over the other but I just got the feeling they weren't meant to be in the same team.

"But most of those people are gone now so hopefully we can forget those stories and concentrate on the work we need to do.

"We need to get points and hopefully we can start with a win against Middlesbrough."

Souness fell out with a number of players during his time in the Ewood hot-seat, most notably Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and, more latterly, Garry Flitcroft, who was axed as club captain in the summer.

But now there seems to be a greater sense of harmony in the camp and Amoruso points to the fact that Hughes was only recently a player himself as a reason for the squad warming to the 40-year-old.

"Don't forget he only stopped playing two years ago and although I never played against him, you can see from the way he talks and acts during training that it wasn't that long since he was a player himself," said Amoruso.

"His attitude has been very good so far and the way he's been with us has been fantastic."

Amoruso has also been impressed by the way Hughes has overhauled the training regime.

Hughes is one of football's forward thinkers and he takes a far more scientific approach to the game as he looks for every possible way to maximise his players' performances on a matchday.

As a result, more emphasis is placed on coaching in training and things like ProZone - a high-tech coaching tool which uses video analysis - and ice-baths have now become part of the norm.

"Every manager has a different attitude, a different way to train, and a different way to coach and you can't really tell which is the best," said Amoruso.

"Everything has to do with results. If you get results then you've got the best manager, the best training, and the best coaches.

"Graeme is probably a manager who comes from the old school so his training was old school.

"Mark comes from the new school and everything is more concentrated on what we do in the game.

"The old school was all about lots of long running, whereas with Mark we do everything shorter and sharper - basically what you need during a game.

"He tries to replay what we do during a game on Saturday so everything in training is 100 per cent geared towards improving the quality and timing during the game.

"The important thing now is to try and put what we do in training into the game, which isn't always easy."