Pep Guardiola arrives at a lacrosse pitch at Lynn University in Boca Raton, around an hour north of Miami, shortly before his Manchester City players. They’re a few minutes back.
City have taken over the campus for the Club World Cup. There is barely a soul around, aside from officious security guards whizzing on buggies with heightened senses given their esteemed guests. They warm up on the lacrosse area and perform more tactical elements across the path, inside the quaint Bobby Campbell Stadium.
Guardiola, cap on and already tanned in the 30-degree heat, bounds over the grass and greets all of the support staff, including two groundsmen flown over to tend to the surface. They’ve fully renovated the pitches over the past few weeks while others have been holidaying. And straight on the mowers after this session, a long one lasting an hour and 45 minutes.
It’s punishing in this climate, Tijjani Reijnders later widening his eyes and laughing. ‘We have to get used to it,’ he says. ‘We have to be ready.’
New men Kolo Toure and Pep Lijnders have been with Guardiola’s trusted fitness coach Lorenzo Buenaventura while setting up. Deep conversations, as if preparing a game. Chris Elderkin, a fitness specialist, talks Lijnders through his prearranged drills. All four are walking through the plans in the rain. The local iguana, a big old fella moseying nearby, decides not to bother them.
There has been a significant amount of soul-searching over the past few months by the management, with the summer shake-up not constrained to the playing staff.
Kolo Toure, Pep Lijnders, Lorenzo Buenaventura and Pep Guardiola run the rule over their Manchester City charges
Lijnders (furthest left) spent a decade at Liverpool, first under Brendan Rodgers and then as Jurgen Klopp’s No 2
Guardiola has overseen a mass overhaul of his coaching staff this summer – with a host of names out of the door and four new faces
Four new faces have certainly freshened things up but City have recognised the need for different voices on the touchline, too. So Klopp’s old lieutenant Lijnders, Toure and set-piece coach James French from Liverpool could prove just as crucial.
Sources inside the dressing room have revealed that the squad were left bemused by the communication – or lack thereof – from the backroom team last season.
That none of the supporting coaches would instigate one-on-one chats to perhaps explain Guardiola’s thinking, as had been the norm previously. Superstars were left second guessing their boss without a cheat sheet and he’s not easily read.
‘The guys were more detached than ever,’ one said. It fed into the idea of shellshock at how the middle of the season played out, perhaps the backroom team not knowing whether to stand off and give players space or not. One of them was reduced to just refereeing six-a-side games at the end of sessions and never spoke.
Juanma Lillo, Inigo Dominguez and Carlos Vicens all left the club before the Club World Cup, which starts for City on Wednesday against Wydad AC in Philadelphia.
Lillo had been hands-on in his first spell as Guardiola’s No 2, up until 2022, before becoming more reserved when returning a year later. Dominguez was seen as Lillo’s man – neither learned English – and made no lasting impact. Vicens has taken the top job at Braga.
City are treating this competition as the start of next season, erasing the last 10 months.
Guardiola, objectively bubblier than he has seemed for some time, tells Nathan Ake that ‘it’s good to be back, come on – we’ll rest when we die’ before boarding their flight to Palm Beach airport last Thursday. He implores Rayan Cherki to give a short address on how happy he is to have signed from Lyon.
Lijnders and James French worked together at Liverpool, and it may well be that Jurgen Klopp’s high-pressing style makes its way over to City too
Assistant coaches Carlos Vicens (centre) and Juanma Lillo (right) have both left the club this summer
It’s sweltering at City’s Lynn University base in Boca Raton, Florida
There was an awareness that it hadn’t felt as if everybody was champing at the bit to get to America and City’s staff have dialled the charm and enthusiasm up to turbo.
It appears to have worked and we will see to what extent over the coming days and weeks. City are in town to win this thing, even if recent history suggests that is an unlikely eventuality.
Guardiola and Lijnders are in deep conversation as the warm-up is completed in the sleepy, affluent Boca Raton – home to three of the top 10 most expensive gated communities in the US.
Lijnders clutches a piece of A4 and the pair are clearly already enjoying swapping ideas. Guardiola had called Klopp for a reference before approaching the Dutchman and what came back was predictably glowing; his first few days on the other side of this Liverpool-City divide have backed that up.
The two main brains break off to study a drill incorporating 12 players at a time, the group split in two.
Guardiola demands that his spotters who throw balls up to be headed at the beginning of the chain are doing so properly. He’s basically telling them how to chuck it.
Lijnders is prowling, noticing each pass. Nineteen members of staff are within the perimeter of the pitch, helping in some way, and there comes booming encouragement in a way that hasn’t always been evident during City training.
Peripheral members of the backroom setup are screaming positive reinforcement. It’s loud, it’s more in your face. It’s presenting an energy.
Nico Gonzalez and new signing Rayan Cherki are put through their paces
Tijjani Reijnders gets to grips with a punishing climate in south Florida
There are as many as 19 coaches at any one time overseeing City’s training sessions
Everything has, according to sources, doubled. The intensity is up, the staff are ‘on them’ more and – at the moment – players are responding. Players are talking up multilingual Lijnders among themselves.
‘Jurgen gave me a lot of freedom and responsibility over the years,’ Lijnders told Mail Sport during his short stint in charge of Red Bull Salzburg, who City could face in the last 16 here. ‘I made a lot of decisions, or we did together. That prepared me well.
‘I want to give joy and emotions to the fans. To play a style where young talents can make the next step, or push to make the next step.
‘That’s why I love pressing and counter-pressing. We all grew up on the street playing football, we all needed freedom to create, score, be spontaneous and unpredictable.’
It does immediately make you wonder if City will return to those core pressing principles of Guardiola’s early years.
Lijnders and French, who worked alongside each other for Klopp, dovetail in leading set-pieces. The specific tactical and shape work is the domain of Lijnders but City hope Toure’s introduction into the mix will offer solutions to the problems of that disconnect of last term.
A tactile man, he is chosen – in the first instance, in its most basic form – to be closer to the players. To make them feel wanted and there is respect for a former defender who won the Premier League title with this club and was Invincible with Arsenal.
Toure danced to his terrace chant with Bernardo Silva by way of an initiation at dinner inside basecamp at the Bacon Ratio Beach Club, Cherki bringing the house down with some choice French rap.
It didn’t work out at Red Bull Salzburg for Lijnders but he is already making a firm impression at City after a good reference from his old boss Klopp
The intense ‘double everything’ sessions are paying off, with players talking up the new setup
Toure also struggled as a head coach at Wigan Athletic, and has big ambitions back at City
Toure, who was helping Oliver Reiss with the Under 18s last season, is initially with the first team for this trip to America, although that has been left somewhat open-ended and there is clearly the option for it to become a more permanent position if that suits all parties.
Players are listening to him when he coaches, organising the boxes – Jeremy Doku attentively quick off the mark when ordered to switch circles – and harbours big ambitions after struggling as a No 1 at Wigan Athletic.
Guardiola has the tactical and tactile in mind in hoping that these changes bring a renewed freshness and different feel to a group who had gone rather stale.
It’ll definitely give him a shot in the arm too. And probably already has.
