There will be major changes at Liverpool over the summer as a lot of roles at the Premier League club will have new faces and one man set to leave is assistant manager, Pep Lijnders.
The Dutch coach is set to follow Jurgen Klopp out of Anfield after many successful years together and is set to embark on his own coaching career.
The 41-year-old made an attempt back in 2018, joining Dutch outfit NEC Nijmegen, but things did not work out and he returned to Liverpool to work under Klopp. Now the biggest club in Holland are eyeing up a move for Lijnders and it remains to be seen if they will make an official move.
According to reliable Liverpool journalist Paul Joyce via Fabrizio Romano, Lijnders is one of the names on Ajax’s shortlist to take over as manager of the Amsterdam club next season.
The Dutch giants are yet to make an official decision but it seems that the Liverpool man is high on their list.
Liverpool coach Pep Lijnders is wanted by Ajax
This would be a big step in Lijnders’ career as there is major pressure to be successful as manager of Ajax. The Amsterdam club have not been having a good season and currently find themselves fifth in the Eredivisie standings.
Klopp has often talked up his assistant coach’s talent and has propelled a lot of Liverpool’s success onto the Dutchman. Ajax will likely be asking Jordan Henderson what the 41-year-old is like and if he is capable of taking over, which should stand to Lijnders.
A decision will be made on who will be the next Ajax manager over the coming weeks and the Liverpool assistant has a good chance of landing the role, but it remains to be seen what the Dutch giants’ next step will be.
I watched Klopp’s retirement interview in which he mentioned how Pepijn Lijnders has introduced innovations in training methods helping to make Liverpool the team they are.
I watched Pep’s interview about what he intends to do after leaving Liverpool. In the interview he thanked Klopp for allowing him to grow and trust him to lead the team, design the training and make tactical decisions.
I love the way in which Liverpool play their football which is down to Klopp with a major input from Pep.
Any new manager will bring in his own backroom staff, change how the team plays and everything about team’s match preparations, which must be unsettling at first for the team.
When Shankly retired there were many good English and foreign managers who could have taken over, however, rather than change a winning formula the club promoted from within, Bob Paisely who had no managerial experience but knew the formula inside out, there has been few managers as successful as Paisely. Promoting from within was successful several times.
If I were making the decision, accepting there are good managers such as Alonso, I would give serious consideration to offering the Job to Pepijn Lijnders who is instrumental in the training, innovative in tactics and in doing so nothing would change for the players, I would still be able to watch the beautiful football that my team play, and as I said why change a winning formula.