Pep Lijnders reveals what Jürgen Klopp tells him ‘always’ as Liverpool’s candid admission

Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp will inevitably be in the spotlight after the Reds play Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday afternoon. He will then no longer be the manager of the club after almost nine years at the helm.

But Klopp’s exit is far from the only one at Liverpool this summer. Assistant managers Pep Lijnders and Peter Krawietz will depart, as will Vitor Matos (elite development coach) and John Achterberg and Jack Robinson (both goalkeeping coaches).

Lijnders has been named the new head coach of Red Bull Salzburg and will have Matos as his assistant. The club has a strong link with Liverpool as the Reds signed Takumi Minamino from them, while the likes of Naby Keïta, Sadio Mané and Dominik Szoboszlai have represented both teams.

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For Lijnders, this weekend will not be the first time he leaves Liverpool. He was at the club before Klopp, leaving in 2018 to take charge of NEC Nijmegen in his native Netherlands.

After that didn’t work, he returned to the Reds. Lijnders spoke to Algemeen Dagblad and admitted that he would not have returned if the offer had been different.

“At Liverpool, they asked me back after the NEC, but I would never have done it if I had been asked back as a ‘number two’ in the staff,” he said. “In the last six years, I’ve been given a lot of responsibility. Jürgen lets me do press conferences, match talks. Everything he does himself. ‘We do this work together,'” he always says. And so it really is. I know I’m well prepared (for Salzburg),” added Lijnders.

He also admitted that he has really enjoyed the last few weeks, even though the Reds have given up on the trophy chase. “You know what’s crazy? In the last two weeks, I felt freedom for the first time. The pressure is gone. There’s nothing left to gain or improve,” Lijnders admitted.

“We finished third in the competition this season and we won’t play the final again. You just live ‘in the moment’.” At home against Spurs I already noticed what that means,” continued Lijnders. “You understand everything even better, the chant of the fans, a swirling Anfield. Sincere? I’m actually disappointed I didn’t enjoy it more this whole time.”

Liverpool.com says: It’s a shame that Lijnders didn’t enjoy more of his best moments during his Liverpool career, but that’s the nature of coaching at the elite level. Would the Reds have been as successful if he hadn’t returned to the club? Klopp certainly appreciates his input, so maybe not. Reds fans will wish Lijnders well and will be watching his time in Austria with interest.