Pep Guardiola admits he is already missing Manchester City man that left last season | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that, despite reinforcements over the last few weeks, he is already missing one name that left his backroom staff.

Aside from the significant changes made to the playing squad in terms of fresh arrivals secured by Hugo Viana, with departures expected in the remaining weeks and months of the summer market, alterations have also taken place off the field at Manchester City.

Following the conclusion of a hugely challenging season across competitions last time around, the decision was taken internally to shake-up various areas of the first-team operation, including the staffing structure working closely alongside Pep Guardiola.

With their contracts expiring, City confirmed that assistant manager Juanma Lillo and technical coach Inigo Dominguez would both be leaving the the club, while set-piece coach Carlos Vicens would take on his first head coach position with SC Braga.

Coming in to replace the aforementioned names included Jurgen Klopp’s former assistant from his hugely successful time at Liverpool in Pepijn Lijnders, as well as Arne Slot’s opposition analyst in James French.

But speaking to reporters after Manchester City’s 2-5 win over Juventus in Orlando on Thursday night, Pep Guardiola spoke honestly about the departure of Lillo from his coaching staff, insisting that he misses his former colleague despite new arrivals.

“Of course I miss Juanma [Lillo]; he had been an incredible person of my life for many, many reasons,” Guardiola admitted.

He continued, “As a human being, he’s one of the nicest human beings I ever met, and as a manager it’s not necessary to say.

“But yeah, he’s fine, and that is most important thing; him and Inigo [Dominguez] were really important in the last three seasons.”

He added, “It was difficult last season all together, but we handled it really well.”

Manchester City’s players have also been outspoken in their admiration for the work put together by Juanma Lillo and co’s successors, with Ilkay Gundogan among those to have praised the new arrivals and faces in the first-team camp.

“The new people that have come in, especially our new set-piece coach [James French], explain things in a very simple way that I quite like and I know other players also like very much,” Gundogan admitted earlier this week.

The former Manchester City captain went on to explain, “We just try to get the patterns, connections between players. That’s not just set-pieces, that’s also for tactics, the way we play – one of the most important things – creating connections between players, anticipating timings, get to know each other as good as possible.”

Manchester City return to action on Tuesday night when they embark on the knockout stages of the FIFA Club World Cup with a clash against Saudi Pro League giants Al-Hilal, now managed by Simone Inzaghi and featuring Joao Cancelo in a star-studded squad.