Pep Lijnders: Our main strength is that we’re always together
Pepijn Lijnders believes the ‘passion and ambition’ of the Liverpool squad is what underpins their success on the pitch.
The assistant manager has detailed how he feels the mentality of the players – and their approach to training sessions - has been crucial to the progression and achievements of the past two seasons.
In an interview with The Athletic, Lijnders said: “The passion and ambition of these players is from another planet.
“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.”
Liverpool added three trophies to the cabinet during a highly successful 2019, as well as posting a 97-point haul in the Premier League.
The capture of the club’s sixth European Cup in June after Tottenham Hotspur were defeated in the Champions League final in Madrid was followed by the UEFA Super Cup and, most recently, the FIFA Club World Cup.
Meanwhile, the Reds have won 19 of their opening 20 league matches so far this season, opening up a 13-point lead at the division’s summit.
“Winning something big puts more conviction, more trust into everything; subconsciously you feel stronger,” said Lijnders. “There’s a real hunger to fight for more prizes.
“But for me it’s about the journey and how the team developed. The trust I got from keeping things simple, never giving up on our way, believing in training and video meetings to improve, clear messages with a lot of conviction from Jürgen, Pete or myself, repeating that process over and over again.
“Trusting the players to always look at our best games and think about what steps won us those games. Was it our full-backs being constantly ready to jump? Was it the centre-backs coming in front of offensive players rather than stepping back? Was it our midfielders being really together and always connected rather than just searching for it? It’s about doing it our way again, becoming better and searching for perfection. We know it doesn’t exist but you still have to search for it.
“People say Liverpool developed so much here and there but I think our main strength is that we’re always together. By that I mean on the pitch, the distances, the organisation, the way we are. That’s the only way to be an aggressive, pressing team. If the distances and the organisation are not right then you have no chance.
“That’s where we’ve made the biggest improvement. Wherever the game is on the pitch, we are there together. A compact team, an intense team, both on and off the ball. Jürgen talks about the principle that everyone is responsible for everything. It’s easy to say, it’s harder to put it into practice on the pitch for 95 minutes but that’s what these players have been doing a lot. If we recover well and have freshness in our game, we go into every game with a common idea of chasing them all over the pitch.
“Each individual in our team has become a better player from working here. If you compare Robertson, Trent and Sadio to when they came in, consistency-wise… I could go on. Jürgen has created a culture of preparation. Each department in the club feels this responsibility and is better connected. It’s clear what we want and the standards have gone up and up and up.”