Lijnders appointment may prove City’s most vital summer signing
Manchester City’s exuberant summer spending—over £300m on new names like Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Aït-Nouri and Rayan Cherki—grabbed headlines, but the signing of Pep Lijnders as Pep Guardiola’s new No. 2 may prove the most impactful move of all. After a trophyless 2024–25, Guardiola erased Juanma Lillo, Íñigo Domínguez, and set-piece coach Carlos Vicens from his bench, bringing in Lijnders and Liverpool’s former dead-ball specialist James French to reboot the club’s coaching DNA. Lijnders—long known as Jürgen Klopp’s fiery right-hand—joins City with a reputation as a tactical energiser whose unrelenting intensity revolutionised Liverpool’s training ground culture. Why a coach can matter more than expensive signings Catalyst over commodity: Unlike a player, a No. 2 touches every aspect—training drills, matchday patterns, morale. Lijnders has been credited with instilling the very ethos that made 'heavy-metal' Liverpool tick. Guardiola himself admitted a desire for […]
