When Juanma Lillo’s brilliant column for The Athletic dropped earlier this week, there were a number of readers in the comments section all asking the same thing about the man who previously worked as Manchester City’s assistant manager under Pep Guardiola.
If, as Lillo says, he prefers international football to the club game due to the fact that managers have less influence on the players – who are, in his own words, “the ones who really matter” – then why did he work for one of the most analytical and detailed managers that football has ever seen?
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It is a fair point, but the story behind Lillo and Guardiola’s relationship is more than a quarter of a century old and begins with Bobby Robson’s Barcelona. It goes some way to explaining why the pair actually see eye-to-eye when it comes to coaching football.
Though nobody knew it at the time, Robson’s league debut as Barcelona manager, on September 1, 1996, proved to be a significant moment in the future of the Premier League.
After winning 4-2 at Real Oviedo that day, Guardiola, the Barcelona captain, was on a mission.
The future Manchester City manager, then 25, went straight to the Oviedo dressing room and knocked on the door.
“Just after the final whistle, our team manager came over to me and told me there was Guardiola outside and he wanted to talk to me,” admitted Oviedo’s then-manager, Lillo.
“He said he wanted to speak with me because he enjoyed watching my teams. He had been following me in the past and asked to keep in touch for the future,” Lillo added about their first encounter.
This admiration was the foundation of a relationship that is still going strong today and one that saw Lillo become a member of Pep Guardiola’s backroom staff at Manchester City from 2020 to 2022.
It is easy to see why Guardiola had such respect for Lillo even back then. Lillo had recently become the youngest manager in the history of the Spanish top flight — he was 29 when he got promoted with UD Salamanca in 1995.
They both stayed in contact after that September day and the relationship blossomed to the extent that Guardiola decided to join Dorados de Sinaloa — the Mexican team managed by Lillo in 2006 — before retiring.
Guardiola and Lillo (second from the right) celebrate winning the Premier League in 2020-21 (Photo: Matt McNulty — Manchester City/Manchester City FC via Getty Images)The Manchester reunion happened seven months after Mikel Arteta became Arsenal manager, leaving his role as assistant manager at City. The club decided no one should replace Arteta for the remainder of the season.
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Liverpool won the Premier League title in 2019-2020 with ease and City made the decision that they had to appoint an assistant for Guardiola, learning from their mistake.
Sporting director Txiki Begiristain and Guardiola decided that Lillo was the best option available, and they got their man.
The reality is, despite those raised eyebrows among some The Athletic readers, Lillo and Guardiola are part of the same school of thought. Lillo, like Guardiola, declares himself as someone really close to the footballing ideals at the heart of the game.
It soon became apparent at City that the duo were a perfect fit for each other. A year after Lillo’s arrival at the club, multiple first-team players cited the key role Lillo played in the 2020-2021 campaign, which saw City claim the Premier League title back at a canter.
By his side, Guardiola had a coach he had previously worked under and someone that he looked up to. Their relationship allowed for complete honesty when it came to tactical discussions and team selection, with both men having enormous respect for the other’s football knowledge.
One example of Lillo’s positive influence on Guardiola and City that stands out took place ahead of the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid last season.
Ahead of the training session before the first leg, Guardiola grabbed Lillo and the pair walked away to isolate themselves on a nearby pitch away from the squad and the watching media.
The duo then spent the next 15 minutes drawing complex movements with their arms, changing their body shape to justify any sort of idea they might come up with, all while listening intently to each other.
That’s what Guardiola had in Lillo. He was his closest confidant in the squad and was someone who he wasn’t afraid to free up his thoughts in front of.
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Sources close to the club have described Lillo as a sort of pacifier for Guardiola, having a positive influence on his famous boss.
The 57-year-old Lillo worked individually with a number of high-profile players, helping them to improve and refine their games.
Fernandinho in particular established a phenomenal relationship with Lillo, with captain and coach connecting both on a footballing and personal level.
Fernandinho even labelled Juanma Lillo “the most South American European I have ever known”.
More dressing-room sources say Lillo was the person most responsible for Joao Cancelo’s renaissance at City, where the Portuguese evolved from a misfit to the best full-back in the league.
“Inside the football pitch and in training sessions, there was no coach more important than Juanma to make Joao (Cancelo) realise what he could do to feel better,” a dressing-room source tells The Athletic.
Lillo has recently confessed that he is still in touch with City disciples such as Gabriel Jesus, Ruben Dias and Cancelo, all of whom are still devoted to their former coach.
Looking back, Lillo would have never imagined that a door knock in 1996 would have ended up giving him the chance to coach some of the best players in the world.
(Top photo: Visionhaus/Getty Images)
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