Manchester City have appointed Pepijn Lijnders as one of the new additions to Pep Guardiola’s coaching staff for this season. He is predominantly recognised for his time as Jurgen Klopp’s assistant, for two spells, during his time at Liverpool Football Club.
Manchester City's new addition to their staff, Pep Lijnders, is known for encouraging his football teams to play a high-intensity gegenpressing style of play, which is mainly focused on working to win the ball back immediately after losing it and incorporating counter-attacking football. The approach is extremely offensive and high-risk, as it also asks for the defensive line to hold a high line to counter-press the opposition.
Manchester City began their Premier League season over the weekend, where they defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-0.
The game against Wolves gave a look into the incorporation of this Lijnders’ style with Pep Guardiola’s high possession style of play, where Manchester City held a noticeably high line and counter-pressed intensively, as well as maintaining a high level of possession in the game.
Reaction followed after Manchester City's first Premier League win, where conversation around the impact brought by Lijnders was discussed.
Jamie Carragher had this to say on Monday Night Football:
"I couldn't believe what I saw, the players were all jumping high up to try and catch the Wolves players offside”
"This is very Liverpool-like. It made me think how much influence is maybe the new coach may have on this team."
"The amount of counter-attacking goals that Liverpool team would score with [Sadio] Mane and [Mohamed] Salah, breaking forward," said Carragher. "When I looked at the goal from Reijnders… not maybe a Pep Guardiola goal.”
"Lijnders - Guardiola gives him the thanks, the hug. Now we don't know exactly what that's for, but I don't think it's a coincidence with some of the things that I saw in the game that he, as a coach, is having a big influence on Pep Guardiola."
The Guardiola and Lijnders partnership got off to a good start this Premier League opening weekend, and additionally, the new signings also got off to a good start, with James Trafford keeping a clean sheet, as well as Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki scoring goals on their Premier League debuts.