Former Liverpool coach Pep Lijnders joined Manchester City in June
Manchester City have spent more than £150m on five new players this summer but Pep Guardiola's biggest signing did not cost a penny - and he will not play any football, either.
In early June, the second-most important figure of Jurgen Klopp-era Liverpool became Guardiola's right-hand man at Manchester City.
Really, it should have been a bigger news story, not least because hiring Pep Lijnders - a man credited with most of the day-to-day training under Klopp, as well as a substantial part of the German's tactical evolution post-Borussia Dortmund - suggests Guardiola is considering a major tactical overhaul.
But what's even more remarkable is that those tactical changes will be navigated with the substantial input of a coach who worked with Klopp on concepts like counter-pressing and attacking in vertical lines; on concepts that served as the antidote to Guardiola's famous positional play.
