A modest playing career should not hide the coaching legacy that Herrera left the game.  The Argentinian born coach managed amongst others Barcelona and Inter but his playing career never got further than a host of unknown French clubs.   As a coach he was a pioneer of psychological motivation and a strict discipline code, Herrera was perhaps a forerunner to the more modern day Capello of the same methods.  He introduced the 'ritiro', the use of a pre-match remote country hotel retreat that started with the collection of players on Thursday to prepare for Sunday Serie A games.

He was also one of the first managers to call the support of the spectators the '12th Man' and use the Catenaccio formula of tactical movements.

He was arguably the first manager to collect credit for his teams' performances namely the appearance in the newspapers of 'Herrera's Inter' headlines.  He more than anyone though brought the word "catenaccio" into the game's vocabulary; the tactic of dour defensive football that forced the opposition to show its hand but also weaknesses.

Football has long became immersed in the debate over the merits of the qualities of  player individuality over tactical systems.  These arguments  and debates more often that not involve the name of Herrera.