Pep Guardiola hails ex-Liverpool duo’s impact at Manchester City ahead of six-pointer | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has extolled the virtues of assistants Pepijn Lijnders and James French ahead of Sunday’s Premier League meeting with Liverpool.

City can capitalise on Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Saturday with three points against Reds, which would cut the Gunners’ lead at the top of the table to four points and hand a massive psychological boost to a new-look Manchester City dressing room in the title race.

The Blues have won 10 of their last 13 games in all competitions and are in a rich vein of form as they welcome title holders Liverpool to the Etihad Stadium in what has become arguably the most anticipated fixture in English football in the last decade.

Guardiola and co will want to take advantage of Liverpool’s indifferent run of form in recent months but avoiding defeat is a must for City, who have already suffered losses at the hands of Tottenham and Brighton and have little room for error in a finely poised title race against the impeccable and unrelenting Arsenal.

City made wholesale changes to their dressing room and staff behind the scenes in the summer transfer window following the appointment of Hugo Viana as the club’s new director of football in the backdrop of a sub-par 2024-25 campaign.

Guardiola also revamped his coaching staff with the stellar acquisitions of former Liverpool pair Pepijn Lijnders and James French – as well as Kolo Toure – after the departures of Carlos Vicens, Íñigo Domínguez and Juanma Lillo.

The Manchester City manager was given an early chance to work with his new staff at the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States in June and Guardiola was impressed with his new assistants, who have handed the Catalan a new lease of life after his most challenging year in charge at the Etihad Stadium.

City need all the help they can get to see off Liverpool on Sunday and Guardiola has hailed the impact of Lijnders and French – who have previously worked at Anfield – since they joined forces with the 54-year-old in Manchester.

“It has been an incredible impact with us,” Guardiola said on Lijnders and French in a press conference on Friday. On Lijnders, the former Barcelona manager added: “It’s so pleasant to work with him. I’m learning a lot, a lot.

“It’s a process that makes me feel like I’m a better manager. Of course, he (Lijnders) knows individual qualities of the players at Liverpool, most of them, because they’ve been working (together) a lot.”

On French and Lijnders, Guardiola said: “And it’s not necessary to tell me how highly they speak about all of them, but the way they play (with) Arne (Slot) comparing that maybe they did slightly different things. And definitely in the end, of course, you have to see what they do with Arne, not what they have done when he was with Jürgen (Klopp) in Liverpool.”

Manchester City can give themselves a vital vial of confidence with three points over reigning champions Liverpool on Sunday and there is no doubt Guardiola will be consulting heavily with Lijnders and French to maximise his side’s chances of victory over Slot’s men.