How 'perfect match' Pep Lijnders has changed Pep Guardiola and Man City

Pep Guardiola looks like a man with less pressure and Pep Lijnders has helped to drive through improvements at Manchester City.

Pep Guardiola has more energy this season. Manchester City players have noticed it, staff have noticed it, and referees have certainly noticed it. Saturday's match with Liverpool will be the third game of the season Guardiola has been unable to direct from the dugout after accruing six yellow cards across the Premier League and FA Cup.

And despite the manager angrily remarking he will take extra holiday if he is banned from being in the technical area, everybody knows that is not true; the Catalan will be as passionate as usual, just shouting his instructions down the phone at assistant Pep Lijnders instead. As the No.2 joked after the same happened at West Ham last month, they were sure to charge up all devices before the game.

Everyone can see why Guardiola has extra fire in his belly, and there are two main theories behind this. The first is that the great manager knows he is leaving at the end of the season and so - like his biggest nemesis Jurgen Klopp - can throw more at this year because he knows there are endless vacations waiting beyond that.

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The second is that City's manager is enthused by the biggest shakeup of the club since he arrived, with the squad transformed over the last 18 months and a complete overhaul of the backroom staff last summer. That could add to belief that Guardiola will at least see out his contract until 2027 with a new team that have already tasted success and look set to get even better.

There could actually be truth to both parts in the sense that whether Guardiola stays or not this summer, he has had more energy this season not exclusively because of his own motivations but because of what is around him. Irrespective of Guardiola's future, the arrival of Lijnders last year as his No.2 has given him more energy simply by taking ownership of so many aspects of City's preparations every day.

As one person who knows Lijnders told the Manchester Evening News: "If you see all the obligations a manager has to do, he cannot care for the simple exercise drill. If you have an assistant coach who is simply doing that job and loves that job with 100 per cent and doesn't think that it is an underestimated job, it must be a perfect match."

That isn't to say that Lijnders is limited to training drills just as it isn't like Guardiola hasn't got time to think about how his team should be playing, but it is different and complementary approaches. City as a club have been set up to let Guardiola be the best version of himself that he can be without unnecessary distractions.

It was not unrelated that the last time City didn't win a league title before last season - back in 2020 when Lijnders was helping Klopp's Liverpool to the championship - was when the manager was left with too much of the coaching burden following the departure of assistants Domenec Torrent (in 2018) and Mikel Arteta (in 2019). Then in came Juanma Lillo, Guardiola's coaching inspiration from when he was a player, and he was rejuvenated.

Klopp used to tell his Liverpool staff how much he loved the energy that Lijnders would always bring, thrilled with how it rubbed off on players and staff alike. A man who brings 100 per cent to work every day is only satisfied when that is returned by his colleagues and while his intensity certainly surprised some in the City squad last summer when Lijnders first arrived, it was exactly what captains Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias wanted to help raise standards in the group that they believed had dropped to unacceptable levels.

Lijnders is also warm and understanding with all departments involved in football performance - taking in analysis, medical and more - with respect for the ideas that come from their specialisms and their insight into what brings football success. As well as drawing more out of individuals, it builds a collective spirit and ethos that only makes the team stronger and takes pressure off the manager knowing that is one less thing to worry about.

"I think this was a key element in having success as a team that we were using knowledge of all the people around and if you are open-minded and listening then you have a big advantage," one coach who has worked at a number of elite clubs told the Manchester Evening News. "It's always great to be with him personally when you're speaking with him. He's so present. This is one of the most important things no matter if you are a football coach, if you are just in a work life or a human being.

"Then he is also on the pitch has a lot of energy. If you want to have a good staff, there should also be a mixture of personalities and for sure you want to have at least one or two persons with energy. He always had a lot of energy outside of the pitch, on the pitch and it really added well to Liverpool's staff and team and especially that type of playing style. If you want to press and be the best and win titles, you need at least one or two staff who has that type of energy."

It is an energy that is difficult to fully describe or replicate. Not many can match Guardiola's capacity to game different ideas and match situations, so Lijnders has been a vital asset for Guardiola to bounce off in preparations - usually for hours each time.

Different people give different answers depending on what they have worked most closely with him on but there is a consensus around Lijnders's strengths on the training pitch, where he is seen as a 'master of exercises' to help the players feel like they can conquer anything they come across. And as much as his drills can be thorough and repetitive, the intended result is spontaneity and creativity.

A player will be asked to run from a yellow cone to a red cone with a ball in a certain time, but the next time they have two opponents in the way, then the next time they have two teammates but four opponents. It is impossible for any coaching team to prepare their players for exactly what their next opponents will do, but the more unfamiliar situations they can be exposed to and work their way through the more the team should be able to find control out of chaos - and Lijnders is recognised as one of the best in the business for that.

Funnily enough, among the most uncomfortable Lijnders has looked since moving to City has been when he walked into the press conference room to fill in for Guardiola before the Tottenham game earlier this January. But that quickly changes, and on Saturday when he walks into that dugout against many of his former colleagues and friends he will have little doubt that the City players will find their composure on the pitch whatever is thrown at them.

The pressure is always on at City, but Lijnders has helped Guardiola and the players to embrace it again.