Pep Guardiola has disclosed that a single phone call was all it took to persuade former Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders to join the ranks at Manchester City.

The Dutch tactician parted ways with the Reds last year, stepping down from his position alongside Jurgen Klopp after an illustrious six-year spell at Anfield.

Thus, it came as quite the shock when he joined the Reds' arch-rivals, Man City, as Guardiola's new right-hand man earlier this summer.

While their collaboration is still in its infancy, Guardiola has already expressed admiration for his latest recruit while discussing his choice to bring Lijnders on board.

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"I know he was with Jurgen [Klopp] for many, many years," Guardiola told Sky Sports' 'One on One Podcast.' "And I thought, 'Okay, if he was with many, many years with Jurgen, this guy must be good!'

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Lijnders enjoyed plenty of success at Liverpool.

Let's go together.' That's the way it was."

Liverpool icon Jamie Carragher has already highlighted Lijnders' influence on Man City during their win over Wolves.

"Pep Lijnders is a big coach, big influence on Jurgen Klopp and I did see little instance of that Liverpool team," Carragher said on Sky Sports' 'Monday Night Football.' "I watched the game at the weekend and couldn't believe what I saw, the players were 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 having on this team...

"The amount of counter-attacking goals that Liverpool team would score with [Sadio] Mane and [Mohamed] Salah, breaking forward

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."


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