Manchester City have spent more than £150m on five new players this summer but Pep Guardiola’s biggest signing did not cost a penny – and he will not play any football, either.
In early June, the second-most important figure of Jurgen Klopp-era Liverpool became Guardiola’s right-hand man at Manchester City.
Really, it should have been a bigger news story, not least because hiring Pep Lijnders – a man credited with most of the day-to-day training under Klopp, as well as a substantial part of the German’s tactical evolution post-Borussia Dortmund – suggests Guardiola is considering a major tactical overhaul.
But what’s even more remarkable is that those tactical changes will be navigated with the substantial input of a coach who worked with Klopp on concepts like counter-pressing and attacking in vertical lines; on concepts that served as the antidote to Guardiola’s famous positional play.
That contrast is often overstated, mind. Guardiola and Klopp borrowed from one another, and their shared peaks at Liverpool and Man City almost seem to merge into one perfect blend of Klopp’s dynamism and Guardiola’s control.
On the one hand Klopp’s ‘heavy metal’ football was tamed by an appreciation of territorial dominance, on the other Guardiola used Klopp’s ideas to adapt to the rough-and-tumble of Premier League life.
Nevertheless Lijnders, like Klopp, is far more concerned than Guardiola with aggressive, high-octane attacking football and the opportunities that open up when the ball changes hands.
Until now. Because from the outside looking in, Lijnders’ appointment appears to confirm Guardiola thinks modern Premier League football is moving in the direction of the old Kloppites. And he’s right.
