Manchester City assistant manager makes honest behind-the-scenes admission over recent performance

Huddersfield Town boss Lee Grant revealed that Manchester City assistant coach Pepijn Lijnders was surprised with the visitors’ display in their 2-0 win at the Accu Stadium.

The Blues booked their place in the Carabao Cup fourth-round on Wednesday evening after a comfortable 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town, with Phil Foden and Savinho scoring for a much-changed Manchester City side after their weekend draw against Arsenal.

Guardiola made nine changes to his Manchester City starting XI that secured a 1-1 draw at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, when Gabriel Martinelli’s injury-time chip over Gianluigi Donnarumma canceled Erling Haaland’s ninth-minute opener and rescued a point for Mikel Arteta’s men.

James Trafford returned to the lineup on Wednesday after spending three games on the bench following Manchester City’s deadline day signing of Gianluigi Donnarumma in a £26 million transfer from Paris Saint-Germain.

Nico O’Reilly and Phil Foden maintained their starting spots as they were named in the lineup for a fourth consecutive game in 10 days – having started in each of Manchester City’s games against Manchester United, Napoli and Arsenal as well.

Six academy graduates started for the Blues at the Accu Stadium as 18-year-old Divine Mukasa made his competitive debut for the first-team after impressing in Manchester City’s 3-0 win away at Palermo in pre-season.

Guardiola will be delighted with Manchester City’s resurgence in form since the international break, with 10 points out of a possible 12 in his side’s last four games providing a strong foundation to build upon into the winter months.

City made a lousy start to the season with losses against Tottenham and Brighton in their opening three games of the 2025-26 Premier League campaign and despite their recent run o encouraging results, Guardiola’s men have some ground to make up as they sit eight points behind league leaders Liverpool in ninth place in the Premier League table after five games.

Speaking after Manchester City’s 2-0 win over his side on Wednesday, Huddersfield Town manager Lee Grant revealed that Guardiola’s assistant coach Pepijn Lijnders was left somewhat surprised by the visitors’ performance on the road in West Yorkshire.

“If you’re Man City, it probably feels like the right result from their perspective, we have to be humble enough to accept that. They deserved the win,” the Terriers’ head coach said after his side’s elimination.

“I spent five or 10 minutes there with Pep (Pepijn) Lijnders and I think even he was surprised at how well they (Manchester City) played this evening.

“How well they executed their passing and connected their passages of play, how little they gave up the football, there was very little in the way of turnovers or sloppy moments them. I think that speaks to the level of opposition we (Huddersfield Town) were up against.”