Pep Lijnders has revealed Jürgen Klopp convinced him to take the job as Pep Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City, despite the German spending almost a decade at their fierce rivals Liverpool. He said Klopp had joked about taking the role if Lijnders didn’t.
Lijnders joined Guardiola’s coaching staff in the summer and will be alongside the Spaniard, who missed Friday’s press conference for “personal reasons”, at Tottenham on Sunday. Lijnders spent almost 10 years at Liverpool, mostly alongside Klopp, and the pair had three title battles with City, twice finishing as runners-up. That sparked some internal debate for Lijnders when the opportunity arose to move to Manchester.
“The moment Pep called, and the feeling he gave me about what he wanted to do with the team by bringing me in, the trust he already had before we discussed how it would look, that made the decision much easier,” Lijnders said. “But you cannot put away 10 years of Liverpool that easily. But I’m really proud to come to a club of this magnitude, so successful over the last 10 years and with a manager that defined football. When I spoke with Jürgen he was so clear: ‘If you don’t do it, I will take the assistant job.’”
Asked about the experience of working under Guardiola, Lijnders said: “Intense. He’s brilliant, of course. He has a passion and a game understanding from a different planet in my opinion. He knows exactly what he wants and the good ones and the top ones, what sets them apart is their love, in my opinion, for his team. You always have people who are geniuses in terms of how to prepare a team, but the quality lies in how you touch the heart of the players, how you convince them to play in a certain way. That is something that didn’t surprise me of course because I knew, but [it is] what I really like about Pep.”
Next Sunday Lijnders returns to Anfield for the first time since leaving in 2024. “It will be special, maybe more special for my family than me,” he said. “But my mindset is to win and to try to beat them.”
