Pep's assistant | Juanma Lillo

[manimanc]

Made up with this.
It's turning into a good week and there may be more news soon who knows..

 

[supercity88]

Has he changed his opinions of positional play then? He did an article for the athletic after the World Cup saying he regrets promoting this way of playing, that he doesn’t like it when the system is king and he wants it to be the players’ individuality that finds the solutions on the pitch. Very weird to write an article of all your regrets surrounding this style of play to then return to it so soon. Maybe I’m missing something.

I think the headline was a bit misleading. He basically talks about the obsession with statistics and tactics when individuality should be allowed to thrive. But he's not dismissing a system or tactics completely, he's keen to create something which provides the flexibility and environment for players to express themselves and thrive. I don't think that's too much of a stretch from what Pep would believe in any case. He's worked with players like Messi, Robben and Ribery where you simply can't restrict them. Last season he created a system that enabled us to get the ball to Haaland more without leaving the defence wide open on the counter. Players like Grealish would have loved a bit more freedom, but you'd still see him running with the ball down the middle of the pitch at times, or across the box. That ability to go and express themselves was still there. And in De Bruyne, you've got a player you just have to unleash sometimes. You tell him where to position himself, and you let him do the rest. I'm sure Pep wanted him closer to Haaland, particularly in that Arsenal game at home, but he may have wanted him to look to play Haaland in or to retain possession if an opportunity to slide him in wasn't there. But De Bruyne thought, fuck that, I'll just run with the ball and smash it in the net instead!

 

[Johnny Mars Bar]

Brilliant news this. Can’t underestimate just how much the Spanish Keegan did for us behind the scenes and it’s great for Pep to have his best mate back in Manchester.

 

[The perfect fumble]

Pep certainly seems pleased!

Based on nothing more than hope, Lillo would be an excellent caretaker manager, should Pep want to take a year off to recharge his batteries before signing a new five year contract.

 

[Kippax77]

Or maybe he balances pep out? We need to be fluid and have different quivers to our bow.

Lovely metaphor

 

[ninjamonkey]

None of us really know what he brings but we won stuff when he was here previously and it makes pep happy, that's all that matters so it's a no brainer.

Hopefully lasts the season before somebody else looks to poach our backroom staff in a bid to grab a slice of peps magic for themselves.

 

[ealing blue]

Be interesting to see whether he becomes a contender to replace Pep when he leaves. Would give us some continuity even if he hasn't got managerial experience

 

[splinter]

Happy days

 

[The Future’s Blue!]

How did he do as a manager in Qatar, didn’t he go to the team that had won it for many years?

Won a treble without him, hopefully it was his previous work that set us up for last season.

 

[Jazzyblue]

This is excellent news. We've had some big departures this season and we have other big departures on the horizon. Backroom continuity is key.