Each minute a fucking lifetime by the look of him.
Cheaper than the usual £50m City drop on full backs. I like Ait Nouri, but a bit like Frimpong, he’s all about the attack and not so much defence.
As long as we secure Kerkez, its all good.
Nouri’s technique and ability in small spaces is some of the best I’ve seen from a full back or a defender on paper. Marcelo was possibly the best at that, in my following. Assou-Ekotto was a weird one of lower level. Let’s see how he is in a 4 at the back at a big club. Could be a very good fit in possession, with his skills, ability to tuck inside, offer quality and variety in build up. And it’s about time Gvardiol switches to LCB (it’s how they ended the season with Dias and Gvardiol).
I thought he wanted a small squad?
Ait.Nouri almost always seems to shut down Salah.
Good left back but not an expensive hire.
It wasn’t him. It was his soul. He wants 50 players, his soul wants 13.
It’s quite the dilemma.
50 full backs more like.
Wait, what? We’re getting a right-back who can’t defend to replace a right-back who couldn’t defend?
So the chap on the right was one of ours too - James French, who was first team opposition analyst for us, and becomes Man City’s set piece coach.
https://www.mancity.com/news/mens/manchester-city-coaching-appointments-63885142
Not a fan of seeing Pepijn in City gear. Secretly hoping he’ll be acting as a saboteur for us.
That would be nice.
Seriously, I don’t like this at all. I understand that he needs to work, and that he’ll get offers for top jobs as an assistant manager, but he should have swerved that. I’m sure that the bald fraud will try to extract everything he knows about LFC, training methods, diets, etc.
That’s why we’ve basically cleared house since Klopp left.
If Klopp and others were still here I might have some concern. It seems he’s getting rid of half the squad to counter that as well.
The whole factor of extracting knowledge and what you can gain from it in another club is probably overrated in the first place. But also, it’s not like our coaching/playing/recruiting idea is totally different than it was.
It’s also hard to have so many secrets in football in the world we’re in today. Where some info might be, that won’t be available to Lijnders and City.
I think they will first and foremost focus on themselves, because they have a real job to do to repair their season, also in a summer that contains the CWC.
Quickly while we’re partly touching on the subject, we could also do with improving our set-pieces on last season.
I just hope we remembered to change all his passwords…
YNWA12345
There’s nothing substantial that the non bald pep will tell pep that he won’t know of already.
The Athletic:
Guardiola had done his homework. When City travelled to St Mary’s to face lowly Southampton in the Premier League on May 10, he made a point of talking to former Liverpool player Adam Lallana to ask for his thoughts on Lijnders.
The City manager called Klopp on the same topic and received more glowing feedback about Lijnders’ contribution to helping Liverpool win the Premier League, Champions League, Club World Cup, FA Cup and Carabao Cup (twice). Guardiola also turned to Mark Leyland, the former Liverpool analyst, who has been City’s head of coaching methodology since July 2023.
By the end of that first conversation with Guardiola, Lijnders had accepted the job in principle, then it was left to his agent, Marc Kosicke, to negotiate with City’s director of football, Hugo Viana.
Three days later, on May 30, personal terms were agreed on a two-year contract (one year guaranteed with the option of a further 12 months). Lijnders called Klopp to tell him that he had decided to make the move to the Etihad. Out of respect, he also rang Arne Slot.
Hopefully they all wanted to stitch up the doper and neglected to say that he’s mainly just good for pep talks and cones. TBF, I think a Guardiola who used cones instead of lines* would be a vast improvement - at least in interviews.
*I am referring of course to marking the pitch rather than as some colloquial term for what I believe the young hoodlums call ‘drugs’.
So they got Cherki…
Is he any good ?