Pep Lijnders reflects on Jurgen Klopp relationship after becoming Pep Guardiola’s assistant

Pep Lijnders has become Pep Guardiola’s new assistant at Manchester City, having previously worked closely with Jurgen Klopp during two spells as the German’s assistant at Liverpool

Pep Guardiola’s decision to bring in Pep Lijnders as his assistant at Manchester City could be a match made in heaven – or hell. Lijnders’ new boss has a reputation for being a manager who always listens intently to the advice given to him by his backroom staff before ignoring it completely.

But Lijnders, the Dutchman who was such an important sounding board for Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool during a six-year period in which the German became the only bulwark between Guardiola and total Premier League domination, is not someone who accepts being ignored.

When the 42-year-old was invited to return as Klopp’s right-hand man in the summer of 2018, just six months after he walked out of Anfield to become head coach of NEC Nijmegen, he insisted he would only accept the offer if he was given more responsibility.

Klopp did what Guardiola must now do at the Etihad by delegating tasks to Lijnders that would have normally come under his remit. One of those jobs was to manage Liverpool in the Carabao Cup – including a tie against City at the Etihad in December 2022 in which Guardiola’s team prevailed 3-2.

Lijnders explained: “When Liverpool asked me back after NEC, I would never have taken the job if I had just been offered the chance to go back as No 2. I was given a lot more responsibility.

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“Jurgen made me do press conferences, match discussions – basically everything he did himself. He always said ‘we do this job together’ – and that’s really how it was.”

It is understood that when he made a call to Klopp asking the former Liverpool manager whether Lijnders would be a good fit alongside him at the Etihad, the German warned that he would quickly become restless if he was asked to do nothing more strenuous than put out the cones for training.

Guardiola is a notorious control freak. The churn of backroom coaches during his nine seasons at the Etihad is eye-opening considering City have won six titles in that time.

Mikel Arteta and Enzo Maresca were bold enough to stand their ground – and are now the respective managers of Arsenal and Chelsea. At the end of last season, even after losing the respected Carlos Vicens to Portuguese club Braga, Guardiola pressed ahead with his plan to bring new voices into his club.

Both Juanma Lillo and Inigo Dominguez departed, with both men still unable to speak English with enough authority to converse freely with City’s players.

They have been replaced by former City defender Kolo Toure, a hugely popular figure at the Etihad after returning to the club to work with the Under-18s team, and former Liverpool set-piece coach James French.

But it was Lijnders who was constantly in Guardiola’s ear during the Club World Cup this summer and the hope is that he will re-energise City’s squad with new ideas after a season which saw them limp to third in the Premier League and lose to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup Final.

The Dutchman also has something to prove after being sacked as coach of Austrian club RB Salzburg last December – just a few weeks before Klopp was officially unveiled as Red Bull ’s head of global soccer.

One of Lijnders final acts in his last week at Anfield last year was to stand on a barstool in a hotel bar to sing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ in front of a group of Liverpool fans. He might be advised to learn the words to ‘Blue Moon.’

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