Pep Lijnders is in full flow.
Liverpool’s articulate assistant manager is eulogising about the tempo and intensity of the training session he has just overseen at Melwood. These are the words of a coach with complete job satisfaction.
“The passion and ambition of these players is from another planet,” Lijnders tells The Athletic.
“Their self-confidence, their self-criticism, that is what makes us consistent. These boys have the ability to make even a simple rondo competitive.
“People talk about going game to game — no, we commit session to session. Small things make big things happen. You have to focus on doing the small things right constantly.
“The passion and ambition I see, especially on the rainy and windy days here, that for me is what separates us from the others.”
Over the course of two hours in his company, Jurgen Klopp’s trusted lieutenant provides a fascinating insight into Liverpool’s stunning rise to the heights of European and world champions as well as runaway Premier League leaders.
The Dutchman’s own personal journey has been no less spectacular. He opens up for the first time about the circumstances surrounding his short spell away from Merseyside in 2018 when he went to manage NEC Nijmegen in his homeland.
Lijnders made player development his life’s work after seeing his own hopes of a professional career wrecked by a serious knee injury as a teenager.
From coaching in the youth ranks at PSV Eindhoven and Porto to being responsible for the entire training programme of a Liverpool team who are rewriting the Anfield record books with their dominance, it’s been some ride. Lijnders is still only 36 but his expertise is vast and he commands the respect of the dressing room. Owners Fenway Sports Group regard him as a pivotal cog in this winning machine.
Like Klopp, he recently signed a contract extension to keep him at Liverpool until 2024. The pair enjoy a close bond.
“There’s a super dynamic between us,” Lijnders says.
“It’s much more than just assistant and manager. What I mean by that is that I believe you need 100 per cent trust in this job because we have to make so many decisions on a daily basis. I love working for him. He sees who I am, and respects that. We know what to expect from each other.
“Jurgen is a true leader. He’s inspirational and motivational. He still surprises me every day with something he says. His brain works differently to a lot of other brains!
“He sees through situations and processes. There is a saying that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. And I think everyone who works with Jurgen has the feeling he really cares about you and your development. There is no ego, he purely searches for the right thing to do.”
Klopp’s famed man-management skills are undoubtedly one of his greatest assets. He has fostered a cherished unity and spirit in the squad which has propelled Liverpool towards glory. On a daily basis Lijnders witnesses the manager’s knack of finding the right words at the right times to get the best out of people.
“When Jurgen speaks to the players, he speaks from the heart and it goes directly into the hearts of the players,” he says.
“He has this remarkable capacity to touch people with the words he selects. That’s not easy, especially with this level of players. I find that intriguing, how it’s possible, the convincing way he has and that ability to touch people. You are dealing with a lot of egos in football but in our club it looks like there are no egos.
“Jurgen has created an environment where everyone has bought into it. He solves problems before they arise. He has this capacity of making sure that certain things won’t happen because he speaks about them. The level of respect the players have for him is huge.
“No written word, no spoken plea, can teach our team what they should be, nor all the books on the shelves, it’s what the coach is himself. Do you know what I mean? The character of the coach becomes the character of the team. You can see it throughout the club. That’s the power of Jurgen’s personality.”
Klopp’s fiercely competitive edge extends to the paddle tennis court that he had installed at Melwood. Most days before training Lijnders and Klopp lock horns. If training is at 3pm then they will arrange to meet for an 11am showdown. They can be noisy affairs.
“The staff hear the shouting — me probably more than him,” laughs Lijnders.
“I don’t know how he does it but Jurgen is actually quite reserved on the court. He can control his emotions. We put our character into these games and there’s a lot of passion.
“It’s usually a doubles sport but we play one v one. We like the fact we have to run more and fight more. He always says his players are mentality monsters, well he’s a mentality monster at paddle tennis! He never knows when he’s beaten. He’s won the past two games and that hurts a lot.
“There have been many times when he’s won without deserving it but I’ve got to admit he’s deserved the past two wins.”
Lijnders enjoys parity with fellow assistant boss Peter Krawietz, whose association with Klopp dates back to his role as chief scout at Mainz nearly two decades ago.
Whereas Lijnders’ time is largely spent planning and delivering training sessions, Krawietz’s area of expertise is video analysis. They complement each other well.
“It’s about constantly giving each other information and working together,” Lijnders says.
“It’s always easier with a good leader but still, life is a team sport. We support Jurgen in our best way possible. We know that we have to use each other’s strengths to be able to accomplish great things.
“Pete is one of the world’s best analysts and knows Jurgen’s way very well. He puts his mark in each game’s preparation. He supports me and Jurgen with information to include in our exercises and searches for weakness to exploit. The best football analysts simplify instead of complicate.
“There’s a culture of preparation and perfection here but with a lot of freedom. It’s a complex job being manager of such a big club. You need people around you and under you to focus on specific things. Jurgen tries to collect good ones, ones he can trust, he’s very strong on that.”
Klopp doesn’t tolerate yes-men. He wants his viewpoint to be challenged. How much input do Lijnders and Krawietz have on team selection?
“Jurgen makes the decisions,” he says firmly. “In the end he’s the one who decides but we try to support him with all the information we have and with all the opinions we have. Everyone is encouraged to say exactly what they think. You might not always agree with each other but it’s about always thinking together. Six eyes see more than two eyes. Three brains with a common idea can come up with different things and different insights compared to just one.
“The best meeting of the week is always the day before a game when Jurgen, Peter and I are in the office and we go through the video analysis and the plan for the game. Always in this meeting there’s a moment when we have full conviction in what we’re going to do. We speak about team selection and tactics. It’s a beautiful moment.”
Lijnders grew up in the small village of Broekhuizen in the Dutch province of Limburg. He was a promising centre midfielder on the books at lower league outfit SVEB.
“I was a leader, someone who tried to control and guide the team,” he says. “Would I have made it as a pro? Maybe yes, maybe no, but I always thought I would.”
That dream was dashed by a ruptured ACL at the age of 17 and he reassessed his goals. He went to study sports in the city of Sittard and channelled all his efforts into earning a coaching apprenticeship at PSV Eindhoven.
“There was only one available and I fought so hard to get it,” he recalls.
“I became a youth coach there. After I got injured and couldn’t play anymore, my uncle, who was the president of SVEB, asked me to take the sessions for their second team and become head of their academy. I was only 18 or 19 but I was coaching at both SVEB and PSV, it was a super time.
“Everything I learned at PSV I tried to implement at SVEB. My dad worked as a creative designer at a printers and I designed two big flipovers (flip charts) with our playing formation on and 15 different principles. One flipover for when we had the ball, one for when the opposition had the ball.
“It was implemented so that all teams from the youngest to the oldest age groups trained and played in this way. It was brilliant. I tried to create a common idea inside the club based on an authentic Dutch ‘total football’ way — trying to be dominant and structured with and without the ball.
“I grew as a coach during my five years at PSV. People really took care of me and guided me. They really wanted me to do well. In my second year I got a small contract, in my third year I got a full-time contract and in my fourth year I went to the United States to give presentations and work together with a few clubs.
“Then I felt I was ready to work outside of Holland. I was 24 and in my last season the PSV academy was named the best one in the country. That was the moment to go.”
Porto came calling.
Having been heavily influenced by the coaching techniques of the great Johan Cruyff and former Feyenoord boss Wiel Coerver during his formative years, Lijnders found new sources of inspiration in Portugal.
Not least in the methodology of Vitor Frade, who helped to revolutionise coaching by combining all phases of the game rather than having specific physical, tactical or technical training. With his tactical periodisation, Frade sought to ensure that the tactical dimension was at the forefront of every session.
“Vitor Frade took me to Porto,” says Lijnders.
“I had my own ideas. I admired Coerver and his attacking philosophy. That if you want to play an attacking game, each player needs an all-round technique and a spirit of initiative. That in each position we needed attacking impulses.
“Of course there was Cruyff who taught the false No 9 and the three-diamond-three. I had all these ideas but without great structure.
“Vitor Frade helped me to structure my ideas into principles. That if you want to play like this then on a Wednesday it’s better to train like this. I was an individual coach but he made me look at the collective. I’ll always be grateful that I met him. For me, he’s in the category of Cruyff and Coerver. He’s very important for a new generation of Portuguese coaches who came through with his ideas.”
The names of the gifted youngsters Lijnders helped to develop during his seven years at Porto roll off the tongue. The impressive list includes Joao Felix, Ruben Neves, Andre Gomes, Andre Silva, Diogo Dalot and Goncalo Paciencia.
“To explain the culture of Porto in one sentence; you go into the complex and written in big letters are the words ‘we love the ones who hate to lose’,” says Lijnders.
“Between 2006 and 2011 there was a project there to restructure the first team, the academy and the scouting. I became responsible for the academy restructure with Luis Castro, who is now the manager of Shakhtar Donetsk. He’s a good friend of mine. Vitor Matos, who is working here at Liverpool now, was a young coach in that project.
“I coached each Porto team two times a week, even the first team after a while in small groups. I was also responsible for the department of individual development.
“It’s completely different in southern Europe compared to Holland and England. Where we are thoughtful before we say something, in southern Europe it’s more emotional. I enjoyed working there a lot. We were successful with the academy and the first team. We were five-times champions and won the Europa League. It was special to be part of that.”
Lijnders grabs the water bottles and mobile phones on the table in front of us and starts rearranging them. Briefly, he’s transported back to the pristine green fields of the Iberian Peninsula.
“We would have eight flat goals on the training pitch where you can shoot from both ways. I’d have 100 balls and 30 to 40 kids,” he explains.
“We called it ‘Zidane’ and ‘Maradona’. ‘Zidane’ was under the highest pressure, find solutions, shield the ball. ‘Maradona’ was about getting the ball, trying to outplay and shoot. It was about showing initiative, playing in the opposition half.
“It was a great time with a lot of talent and the young boys inspired me. It makes me really proud to see them play now. To see Joao Felix now, wow, how he turns, combines, how he makes the game so unpredictable…”
By the summer of 2014 Lijnders was looking for a new challenge. He was on the brink of leaving Porto for Ajax when a phone call from then Liverpool academy coach Michael Beale changed everything. He was offered the job of under-16s coach.
“Liverpool kidnapped me!” he laughs.
“I was in Wales for my UEFA A Licence. Over that weekend I had to give a presentation and while I was there Michael and I met to talk. He’d heard a lot about me.
“On the Monday I was supposed to go to Ajax to make the final negotiations with them. I had to call my wife and tell her there had been a change of plan.
“Michael said: ‘You’re coming in the car to Liverpool with us.’ I went to the Hope Street Hotel and I was in the Quarter (a nearby restaurant), drinking espresso and the sun was shining. It was a beautiful day.
“Why did I want to leave Porto? I wanted just one team to put into practice all I had learned over the years at PSV and Porto. When Liverpool said I could have the under-16s and under-15s, I thought ‘this is perfect’.”
Lijnders had attracted interest from Manchester United the previous year but after Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement those discussions had gone cold. United’s loss proved to be Liverpool’s gain.
His impact at the club’s Kirkby academy over the course of the 2014-15 season was immense. The squad of youngsters he inherited included Trent Alexander-Arnold and Rhian Brewster.
Alexander-Arnold, now arguably the most complete right-back in world football, told The Athletic earlier this season about the importance of the role played by Lijnders in his rise through the ranks.
“Trent developed as a guy incredibly that season,” Lijnders says.
“He was my captain and our No 6 with only three players behind him in a three-diamond-three so he had to do everything well. You have leaders by talking, but Trent was a leader very naturally.
“After sessions, Trent and I would stay out there for another 20 minutes doing some skills until the lights went out. Trent would always be like ‘again, again’.
“That was one of my favourite years of coaching. I must have said 50 times, ‘Guys, I thought you couldn’t play better than yesterday but today you proved me wrong again’. We trained for two hours each day and every session ended with three teams of seven. Goal on, goal off. The better you played, the more you played. With the streetwise Liverpool boys that was the way to push them.
“I really believe that if you want to play quick then it starts in the mind and you have to train like the game. I do it a lot now with the first team. One team attacks, one team defends. They have 40 seconds to score, if they can’t then they’re out. If they score then they play against the third team who are waiting. You split the pitch in two and we call it the ‘wave’ game. If the team defending win the ball then they have to break the halfway line.
“That’s how we want to play. We’re not defending our goal, we defend the halfway line first. And if you lose the ball it has to be intense with maximum concentration.”
Lijnders was invited to Melwood by then boss Brendan Rodgers on a number of occasions to talk about his counter-pressing methods. He blew Rodgers away with his tactical insights and in the summer of 2015 he was promoted to the Northern Irishman’s backroom staff as first-team development coach. He became the key link between the club’s two bases in Kirkby and Melwood and relished being responsible for the ‘Talent Group’ which brought the best young players together from across a number of age groups.
However, just four months later, uncertainty reigned after results nosedived and Rodgers was sacked. Fears that his own job was in jeopardy were swiftly alleviated by Fenway Sports Group president Mike Gordon.
“When Brendan got fired I was really upset. I saw it on the news and called him straightaway,” Lijnders recalls.
“Twenty minutes later Mike Gordon called me. In your lifetime there are moments that you will never forget and that’s one of them; why people will always be very important to you.
“Mike explained everything to me. He said: ‘Pep, you’re here, you will be part of the set-up with the new coach but I need you to help me.’ They needed a week to get everything organised and he wanted me to take the training by myself. I tried to keep Melwood alive and keep everyone going.
“During their talks, Jurgen said to Mike: ‘Listen, this is the staff I want to work with, plus I’ll need a goalkeeper coach and a sports science guy.’ But Mike told him ‘Pep has to stay, I promise you’ll like him.’
“This is a funny story that Mike later told me. Jurgen called him two months later and said: ‘Mike, you were completely wrong, you told me I’d like Pep.’ Mike was like ‘Oh, OK…’ Then Jurgen said: ‘I don’t like Pep, I love him!’”
There was another moment early on in Klopp’s reign when Lijnders realised that his work was being appreciated by the new man at the helm.
“Jurgen came to me with a letter that someone from Germany had written to him,” he reveals.
“It had a CV with it from a coach who was looking for a job at Liverpool. It was written in English and Jurgen came to me and said ‘Pep, what is this? I don’t understand it.’ So I started to read it out and said ‘Gaffer, this guy wants to be on the training pitch with you doing sessions.’
“Jurgen said: ‘Ah, so basically he wants your job?’ I said: ‘Yes, you could look at it like that!’ He took the letter, ripped it up, threw it in the bin and walked off without saying anything. That was when I thought ‘things are going well here’. It’s difficult to put a moment like that into words.
Liverpool’s articulate assistant manager is eulogising about the tempo and intensity of the training session he has just overseen at Melwood. These are the words of a coach with complete job satisfaction.
“The passion and ambition of these players is from another planet,” Lijnders tells The Athletic.
“Their self-confidence, their self-criticism, that is what makes us consistent. These boys have the ability to make even a simple rondo competitive.
“People talk about going game to game — no, we commit session to session. Small things make big things happen. You have to focus on doing the small things right constantly.
“The passion and ambition I see, especially on the rainy and windy days here, that for me is what separates us from the others.”
Over the course of two hours in his company, Jurgen Klopp’s trusted lieutenant provides a fascinating insight into Liverpool’s stunning rise to the heights of European and world champions as well as runaway Premier League leaders.
The Dutchman’s own personal journey has been no less spectacular. He opens up for the first time about the circumstances surrounding his short spell away from Merseyside in 2018 when he went to manage NEC Nijmegen in his homeland.
Lijnders made player development his life’s work after seeing his own hopes of a professional career wrecked by a serious knee injury as a teenager.
From coaching in the youth ranks at PSV Eindhoven and Porto to being responsible for the entire training programme of a Liverpool team who are rewriting the Anfield record books with their dominance, it’s been some ride. Lijnders is still only 36 but his expertise is vast and he commands the respect of the dressing room. Owners Fenway Sports Group regard him as a pivotal cog in this winning machine.
Like Klopp, he recently signed a contract extension to keep him at Liverpool until 2024. The pair enjoy a close bond.
“There’s a super dynamic between us,” Lijnders says.
“It’s much more than just assistant and manager. What I mean by that is that I believe you need 100 per cent trust in this job because we have to make so many decisions on a daily basis. I love working for him. He sees who I am, and respects that. We know what to expect from each other.
“Jurgen is a true leader. He’s inspirational and motivational. He still surprises me every day with something he says. His brain works differently to a lot of other brains!
“He sees through situations and processes. There is a saying that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. And I think everyone who works with Jurgen has the feeling he really cares about you and your development. There is no ego, he purely searches for the right thing to do.”
Klopp’s famed man-management skills are undoubtedly one of his greatest assets. He has fostered a cherished unity and spirit in the squad which has propelled Liverpool towards glory. On a daily basis Lijnders witnesses the manager’s knack of finding the right words at the right times to get the best out of people.
“When Jurgen speaks to the players, he speaks from the heart and it goes directly into the hearts of the players,” he says.
“He has this remarkable capacity to touch people with the words he selects. That’s not easy, especially with this level of players. I find that intriguing, how it’s possible, the convincing way he has and that ability to touch people. You are dealing with a lot of egos in football but in our club it looks like there are no egos.
“Jurgen has created an environment where everyone has bought into it. He solves problems before they arise. He has this capacity of making sure that certain things won’t happen because he speaks about them. The level of respect the players have for him is huge.
“No written word, no spoken plea, can teach our team what they should be, nor all the books on the shelves, it’s what the coach is himself. Do you know what I mean? The character of the coach becomes the character of the team. You can see it throughout the club. That’s the power of Jurgen’s personality.”
Klopp’s fiercely competitive edge extends to the paddle tennis court that he had installed at Melwood. Most days before training Lijnders and Klopp lock horns. If training is at 3pm then they will arrange to meet for an 11am showdown. They can be noisy affairs.
“The staff hear the shouting — me probably more than him,” laughs Lijnders.
“I don’t know how he does it but Jurgen is actually quite reserved on the court. He can control his emotions. We put our character into these games and there’s a lot of passion.
“It’s usually a doubles sport but we play one v one. We like the fact we have to run more and fight more. He always says his players are mentality monsters, well he’s a mentality monster at paddle tennis! He never knows when he’s beaten. He’s won the past two games and that hurts a lot.
“There have been many times when he’s won without deserving it but I’ve got to admit he’s deserved the past two wins.”
Lijnders enjoys parity with fellow assistant boss Peter Krawietz, whose association with Klopp dates back to his role as chief scout at Mainz nearly two decades ago.
Whereas Lijnders’ time is largely spent planning and delivering training sessions, Krawietz’s area of expertise is video analysis. They complement each other well.
“It’s about constantly giving each other information and working together,” Lijnders says.
“It’s always easier with a good leader but still, life is a team sport. We support Jurgen in our best way possible. We know that we have to use each other’s strengths to be able to accomplish great things.
“Pete is one of the world’s best analysts and knows Jurgen’s way very well. He puts his mark in each game’s preparation. He supports me and Jurgen with information to include in our exercises and searches for weakness to exploit. The best football analysts simplify instead of complicate.
“There’s a culture of preparation and perfection here but with a lot of freedom. It’s a complex job being manager of such a big club. You need people around you and under you to focus on specific things. Jurgen tries to collect good ones, ones he can trust, he’s very strong on that.”
Klopp doesn’t tolerate yes-men. He wants his viewpoint to be challenged. How much input do Lijnders and Krawietz have on team selection?
“Jurgen makes the decisions,” he says firmly. “In the end he’s the one who decides but we try to support him with all the information we have and with all the opinions we have. Everyone is encouraged to say exactly what they think. You might not always agree with each other but it’s about always thinking together. Six eyes see more than two eyes. Three brains with a common idea can come up with different things and different insights compared to just one.
“The best meeting of the week is always the day before a game when Jurgen, Peter and I are in the office and we go through the video analysis and the plan for the game. Always in this meeting there’s a moment when we have full conviction in what we’re going to do. We speak about team selection and tactics. It’s a beautiful moment.”
Lijnders grew up in the small village of Broekhuizen in the Dutch province of Limburg. He was a promising centre midfielder on the books at lower league outfit SVEB.
“I was a leader, someone who tried to control and guide the team,” he says. “Would I have made it as a pro? Maybe yes, maybe no, but I always thought I would.”
That dream was dashed by a ruptured ACL at the age of 17 and he reassessed his goals. He went to study sports in the city of Sittard and channelled all his efforts into earning a coaching apprenticeship at PSV Eindhoven.
“There was only one available and I fought so hard to get it,” he recalls.
“I became a youth coach there. After I got injured and couldn’t play anymore, my uncle, who was the president of SVEB, asked me to take the sessions for their second team and become head of their academy. I was only 18 or 19 but I was coaching at both SVEB and PSV, it was a super time.
“Everything I learned at PSV I tried to implement at SVEB. My dad worked as a creative designer at a printers and I designed two big flipovers (flip charts) with our playing formation on and 15 different principles. One flipover for when we had the ball, one for when the opposition had the ball.
“It was implemented so that all teams from the youngest to the oldest age groups trained and played in this way. It was brilliant. I tried to create a common idea inside the club based on an authentic Dutch ‘total football’ way — trying to be dominant and structured with and without the ball.
“I grew as a coach during my five years at PSV. People really took care of me and guided me. They really wanted me to do well. In my second year I got a small contract, in my third year I got a full-time contract and in my fourth year I went to the United States to give presentations and work together with a few clubs.
“Then I felt I was ready to work outside of Holland. I was 24 and in my last season the PSV academy was named the best one in the country. That was the moment to go.”
Porto came calling.
Having been heavily influenced by the coaching techniques of the great Johan Cruyff and former Feyenoord boss Wiel Coerver during his formative years, Lijnders found new sources of inspiration in Portugal.
Not least in the methodology of Vitor Frade, who helped to revolutionise coaching by combining all phases of the game rather than having specific physical, tactical or technical training. With his tactical periodisation, Frade sought to ensure that the tactical dimension was at the forefront of every session.
“Vitor Frade took me to Porto,” says Lijnders.
“I had my own ideas. I admired Coerver and his attacking philosophy. That if you want to play an attacking game, each player needs an all-round technique and a spirit of initiative. That in each position we needed attacking impulses.
“Of course there was Cruyff who taught the false No 9 and the three-diamond-three. I had all these ideas but without great structure.
“Vitor Frade helped me to structure my ideas into principles. That if you want to play like this then on a Wednesday it’s better to train like this. I was an individual coach but he made me look at the collective. I’ll always be grateful that I met him. For me, he’s in the category of Cruyff and Coerver. He’s very important for a new generation of Portuguese coaches who came through with his ideas.”
The names of the gifted youngsters Lijnders helped to develop during his seven years at Porto roll off the tongue. The impressive list includes Joao Felix, Ruben Neves, Andre Gomes, Andre Silva, Diogo Dalot and Goncalo Paciencia.
“To explain the culture of Porto in one sentence; you go into the complex and written in big letters are the words ‘we love the ones who hate to lose’,” says Lijnders.
“Between 2006 and 2011 there was a project there to restructure the first team, the academy and the scouting. I became responsible for the academy restructure with Luis Castro, who is now the manager of Shakhtar Donetsk. He’s a good friend of mine. Vitor Matos, who is working here at Liverpool now, was a young coach in that project.
“I coached each Porto team two times a week, even the first team after a while in small groups. I was also responsible for the department of individual development.
“It’s completely different in southern Europe compared to Holland and England. Where we are thoughtful before we say something, in southern Europe it’s more emotional. I enjoyed working there a lot. We were successful with the academy and the first team. We were five-times champions and won the Europa League. It was special to be part of that.”
Lijnders grabs the water bottles and mobile phones on the table in front of us and starts rearranging them. Briefly, he’s transported back to the pristine green fields of the Iberian Peninsula.
“We would have eight flat goals on the training pitch where you can shoot from both ways. I’d have 100 balls and 30 to 40 kids,” he explains.
“We called it ‘Zidane’ and ‘Maradona’. ‘Zidane’ was under the highest pressure, find solutions, shield the ball. ‘Maradona’ was about getting the ball, trying to outplay and shoot. It was about showing initiative, playing in the opposition half.
“It was a great time with a lot of talent and the young boys inspired me. It makes me really proud to see them play now. To see Joao Felix now, wow, how he turns, combines, how he makes the game so unpredictable…”
By the summer of 2014 Lijnders was looking for a new challenge. He was on the brink of leaving Porto for Ajax when a phone call from then Liverpool academy coach Michael Beale changed everything. He was offered the job of under-16s coach.
“Liverpool kidnapped me!” he laughs.
“I was in Wales for my UEFA A Licence. Over that weekend I had to give a presentation and while I was there Michael and I met to talk. He’d heard a lot about me.
“On the Monday I was supposed to go to Ajax to make the final negotiations with them. I had to call my wife and tell her there had been a change of plan.
“Michael said: ‘You’re coming in the car to Liverpool with us.’ I went to the Hope Street Hotel and I was in the Quarter (a nearby restaurant), drinking espresso and the sun was shining. It was a beautiful day.
“Why did I want to leave Porto? I wanted just one team to put into practice all I had learned over the years at PSV and Porto. When Liverpool said I could have the under-16s and under-15s, I thought ‘this is perfect’.”
Lijnders had attracted interest from Manchester United the previous year but after Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement those discussions had gone cold. United’s loss proved to be Liverpool’s gain.
His impact at the club’s Kirkby academy over the course of the 2014-15 season was immense. The squad of youngsters he inherited included Trent Alexander-Arnold and Rhian Brewster.
Alexander-Arnold, now arguably the most complete right-back in world football, told The Athletic earlier this season about the importance of the role played by Lijnders in his rise through the ranks.
“Trent developed as a guy incredibly that season,” Lijnders says.
“He was my captain and our No 6 with only three players behind him in a three-diamond-three so he had to do everything well. You have leaders by talking, but Trent was a leader very naturally.
“After sessions, Trent and I would stay out there for another 20 minutes doing some skills until the lights went out. Trent would always be like ‘again, again’.
“That was one of my favourite years of coaching. I must have said 50 times, ‘Guys, I thought you couldn’t play better than yesterday but today you proved me wrong again’. We trained for two hours each day and every session ended with three teams of seven. Goal on, goal off. The better you played, the more you played. With the streetwise Liverpool boys that was the way to push them.
“I really believe that if you want to play quick then it starts in the mind and you have to train like the game. I do it a lot now with the first team. One team attacks, one team defends. They have 40 seconds to score, if they can’t then they’re out. If they score then they play against the third team who are waiting. You split the pitch in two and we call it the ‘wave’ game. If the team defending win the ball then they have to break the halfway line.
“That’s how we want to play. We’re not defending our goal, we defend the halfway line first. And if you lose the ball it has to be intense with maximum concentration.”
Lijnders was invited to Melwood by then boss Brendan Rodgers on a number of occasions to talk about his counter-pressing methods. He blew Rodgers away with his tactical insights and in the summer of 2015 he was promoted to the Northern Irishman’s backroom staff as first-team development coach. He became the key link between the club’s two bases in Kirkby and Melwood and relished being responsible for the ‘Talent Group’ which brought the best young players together from across a number of age groups.
However, just four months later, uncertainty reigned after results nosedived and Rodgers was sacked. Fears that his own job was in jeopardy were swiftly alleviated by Fenway Sports Group president Mike Gordon.
“When Brendan got fired I was really upset. I saw it on the news and called him straightaway,” Lijnders recalls.
“Twenty minutes later Mike Gordon called me. In your lifetime there are moments that you will never forget and that’s one of them; why people will always be very important to you.
“Mike explained everything to me. He said: ‘Pep, you’re here, you will be part of the set-up with the new coach but I need you to help me.’ They needed a week to get everything organised and he wanted me to take the training by myself. I tried to keep Melwood alive and keep everyone going.
“During their talks, Jurgen said to Mike: ‘Listen, this is the staff I want to work with, plus I’ll need a goalkeeper coach and a sports science guy.’ But Mike told him ‘Pep has to stay, I promise you’ll like him.’
“This is a funny story that Mike later told me. Jurgen called him two months later and said: ‘Mike, you were completely wrong, you told me I’d like Pep.’ Mike was like ‘Oh, OK…’ Then Jurgen said: ‘I don’t like Pep, I love him!’”
There was another moment early on in Klopp’s reign when Lijnders realised that his work was being appreciated by the new man at the helm.
“Jurgen came to me with a letter that someone from Germany had written to him,” he reveals.
“It had a CV with it from a coach who was looking for a job at Liverpool. It was written in English and Jurgen came to me and said ‘Pep, what is this? I don’t understand it.’ So I started to read it out and said ‘Gaffer, this guy wants to be on the training pitch with you doing sessions.’
“Jurgen said: ‘Ah, so basically he wants your job?’ I said: ‘Yes, you could look at it like that!’ He took the letter, ripped it up, threw it in the bin and walked off without saying anything. That was when I thought ‘things are going well here’. It’s difficult to put a moment like that into words.
