Manchester City poach highly-rated former Liverpool backroom staff who Klopp hailed as “incredibly important” for the Reds

Manchester City have reportedly poached Former Liverpool and current Newcastle United’s first-team coaching analyst Mark Leyland.

Leyland left his role as the Reds’ head of post-match analysis and elite player development analysis in December 2021 after being headhunted by the Toon Army, where he has taken on a position working closely alongside Eddie Howe’s first-team.

Howe and Leyland previously worked together at Burnley and reunited midway through the 2021/22 season with Newcastle in a relegation battle. They would rally to finish in 11th position, with the Newcastle boss going on the record to commend Leyland’s ‘big impact’ and the ‘huge part’ played in the club’s turnaround.

It seems this success has not gone unnoticed, however, and has ultimately resulted in Newcastle losing a key member of their backroom team. As first reported by the Daily Mail, he has been recruited for a ‘new international position’ covering all the clubs who form the City Football Group (CFG). Coming under this bracket are of course City themselves, in addition to ten other sides including New York City FC, Melbourne City, Girona and Troyes.

Leyland first joined Liverpool a decade ago in 2013 and served at the club for a period of eight years before a chance arose to take on a greater sense of responsibility. At the time of this departure, Jurgen Klopp expressed his gratitude for all the analyst had done for the Reds, stressing it would not have been right to stand in the way of this move.

“Mark was here longer than me. He was an incredibly important member of our staff, with his post-match analysis and the analysis he did with the players. He is top guy,” said Klopp.

“He had the chance to get a more senior role at Newcastle, which we couldn’t offer here, and he was eager to make the next step in his career. We were happy to let him use this opportunity; good people should be treated in a good way and that’s what we did with Mark.”