Liam Manning was announced as the head coach of MK Dons on August 13 2021. He accepted the role after spending just a year as a professional manager with Lommel in the Belgian First Division B.
He served in that role from August 2020 through to July 2021, stepping away from Belgium in order to pursue a career as a manager in England. He spent several years studying the game up close and personal, working as a youth coach with his former club Ipswich Town, in addition to working as an Academy director for New York City FC in Major League Soccer.
In his professional coaching career, Manning was a member of the City Football Group at both NYCFC and Lommel, before arriving to the Dons. As a youth player, Manning’s career was spent with childhood club Norwich City – as well as Ipswich Town, where he would eventually play a year as a professional (2004-05).
Head Coach Liam Manning...
On the recent play of Scott Twine:
“A terrific character. Starting as a person, he’s such a humble guy, honest and hardworking. He just loves football as well. If you have a good conversation with him, he tells you about the time and energy he’s put into learning how to [produce so well on free kicks]. Credit goes to him for being so dedicated on such a difficult technique.
“He’s been terrific since he’s joined. He’s a constant threat. His quality in attacking areas has been really good. He needs to keep pushing and keep progressing. Keep getting better. And keep delivering, ultimately.”
On the team being nine games unbeaten in the current run:
“The first game was Sunderland here [Stadium MK], and ultimately, went away relatively pleased with the performance, and we got nothing from it. Then you look at [the game against Fleetwood], and not quite the performance, but it shows another side. I told the guys in the dressing room afterwards, we have to be able to grind out points when we’re not playing well. The beauty of this league is it moves on quickly with another game on Saturday. We have to assess, reflect and take the learnings from it, and then get ready to go against Doncaster Rovers on Saturday.”
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