Former Liverpool Assistants Joins Man City

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has added former Liverpool staff members Pepijn Lijnders and James French to his coaching team as part of a major rebuild following a trophyless 2023–24 season.

Lijnders and French, who served as key assistants under Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, helped mastermind the club’s Champions League and Premier League triumphs, while also challenging Guardiola’s Manchester City in one of the Premier League’s most memorable rivalries.

Now, after failing to win a trophy for the first time since 2017, Guardiola has brought both men into his backroom staff at the Etihad Stadium.

Lijnders, who served as Klopp’s assistant manager during the latter half of his successful tenure at Liverpool, has been appointed Guardiola’s new assistant manager. French, who worked as Liverpool’s opposition analyst, will now serve as City’s set-piece coach.

Their appointments follow the departures of three key City coaches at the end of last season, including Guardiola’s long-time assistants Juanma Lillo and Inigo Dominguez.

Lijnders, 42, left Liverpool alongside Klopp at the end of the 2023–24 campaign. He briefly took over as head coach of Red Bull Salzburg in May 2024 but left the Austrian club after just 29 matches in charge.

French previously worked as a performance analyst for the Football Association of Wales before joining Liverpool in July 2012.

Lijnders first joined Liverpool in 2014 under then-manager Brendan Rodgers. In 2018, he left to manage Dutch side NEC Nijmegen in the Eredivisie but was dismissed after one season. He returned to Anfield in 2019 following the departure of Klopp’s former assistant Zeljko Buvac.

During his time with Liverpool, Lijnders helped win the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, two League Cups, the FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, and the Community Shield.

City’s director of football, Hugo Viana, praised the duo, stating that their “talent, application, work ethic, and all-round commitment are totally aligned with the values that underpin how Pep wants football to be played.”

Source: BBC Sport