Pep Lijnders’ sacking by RB Salzburg has led to questions about his Liverpool legacy, but is their merit to the madness or is it more revisionism?
THERE’S an opinion I have about Everton which is that Sean Dyche deserves a statue.
Rumours are rife that Dyche isn’t long for this world at Goodison Park, but time may paint his era and ability to keep them in the Premier League as one of the most significant.
This generally doesn’t go down well. There’s a litany of names from Ronald Koeman to Frank Lampard who have shone then faded just as quick over there.
Flaws in their character, the colour of their Christmas tree – scrutinised with every passing day.
I’d hate to watch a Dyche team, but he kept them in the league and these are the bare facts. He also loves Glastonbury and was lovely to my Burnley-supporting mate at Wembley last year.
Build the statue.
By contrast, Liverpool haven’t had to endure such character analysis. A decade of Jürgen Klopp now followed by Arne Slot’s current tenure has been smooth in comparison to others.
The circus of Manchester United has become the overriding news story. Chelsea have twisted on coaches so many times that they now have something to stick on.
We judge managers and coaches because we trust them to lead. If that is questioned, broken or undermined it’s usually hard to find a way back.
Slot said himself today he’s avoiding questioning by winning. If he wasn’t, his comparisons of Liverpool to Feyenoord, not moving his family to Merseyside or even the current contract impasse may be more under the spotlight and at his door.
Unfortunately, Klopp’s old assistant Pep Lijnders hasn’t had the same grace. After a good start, a bad run has ended with him leaving his role at Red Bull Salzburg.
Cue, for some reason, a small number of Liverpool supporters seizing the opportunity to lament Lijnders’ character and ability.
Pins on the map connecting Liverpool’s failings to Lijnders are somehow in circulation.
There has always been some form of dissonance towards Lijnders, particularly after his book, ‘Intensity’, was launched at the end of 2021-22.
People viewed it as a self-inflicted codebreaker. It became the Dietmar Hamann lazy narrative of choice to point to when the following season unravelled and the lungs and legs went from that Klopp side.
Some viewed him as being too prominent, too excitable. He had a touch of the Jason Tindalls about him. Main character energy as an understudy.
There’s an unspoken Liverpudlianism of not getting too above your station. Essentially, if you’re going to do well, do it without broadcast. Self-praise is no praise.
Whatever it was, it serves nobody to look at Lijnders’ current plight as some sort of ‘gotcha’. Liverpool were incredibly and intricately elite under Klopp.
They were nous, and prep, and in-game brilliance. For two years, they half timed better than anyone else in the world.
To say he was holding the club back, or that it was all built on hugs and gegenpressing is disrespectful to our own legacy and recent history.
Liverpool will come up against Ange Postecoglu’s Tottenham on Sunday. The coach said exhaustingly last week that managers face an election every weekend, yet that’s simply not our experience.
We’ve fortunately never been subjected to the chaos of constantly finding flaws and looking for new solutions from the dugout.
Slot followed Klopp because of a commitment to excellence across the club. Lijnders was part of that. He got it and loved Liverpool.
There’s no thread to unravel. No sniggering necessary. His sacking was sad, but not impactful on Liverpool, partly because of the legacy he left.
There’s nothing to be said. But some people are still finding a reason.
Forza Sean Dyche.
Buy Dan Morgan’s book ‘Jürgen Said To Me’ on Klopp, Liverpool and the remaking of a city…
