Klopp’s right hand man recently revealed in an exclusive with FourFourTwo that he would only ever be second in command to Jurgen Klopp.
Lijnders specifies that he “will assist Jurgen and Jurgen only,” and that after his contract ends with Liverpool, he will sit down with his agent and seek out managerial positions.
He began his career with PSV Eindhoven in 2002 and then moved to Porto to help develop their academy in 2007 and after much success was approached by then Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson in 2013. Fortunately for all Liverpool fans, Ferguson retired a few months later and the move fell through. Giving Liverpool the chance to snap him up in 2014 and give Lijnders the role as the U16 coach.
At the time, Brendan Rodgers was the manager in charge at Liverpool and found Lijnders work with the academy appealing and as a result asked him to be an assistant in Lijnders’ next season. Once again, the manager that had requested Lijnders expertise as an assistant was then gone in a matter of months.
Enter Jurgen Klopp in October of 2015 and Lijnders retained his role as assistant. Lijnders had his first foray into management of a senior side during a brief stint in the beginning of 2018 with Dutch second-tier side NEC Nijmegen. He joined with the intention of winning promotion to the Eredivisie and was sacked when they did not achieve their goal. Lijnders then returned to Liverpool and has won a plethora of trophies at Klopp’s side since since and will stay in that role until his contract ends in 2026.
There is no saying what comes next for Lijnders but he has made it clear that he wants to become the head manager in charge after his contract ends. However with Klopp’s contract ending in 2024, maybe Lijnders will take over as manager of Liverpool?
