Pepijn Lijnders has attributed Liverpool’s stirring restoration this season to their summer season recruitment, contemporary management and the specter of a punch within the face.
Liverpool’s assistant supervisor made the risk as a pre-season joke to the squad as he and Jürgen Klopp sought to attract a line underneath the frustration of the 2022-23 marketing campaign. Lijnders believes the dedication to maneuver on, together with the standard of Liverpool’s midfield rebuild and gamers akin to Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold assuming better duty, has re-energised Klopp and the workforce.
Liverpool stay in pursuit of all 4 accessible trophies and host Fulham within the Carabao Cup semi‑ultimate first leg on Wednesday. They will likely be with out Alexander-Arnold for the subsequent three weeks, nonetheless, after the influential defender sustained a knee ligament damage within the FA Cup third‑spherical win at Arsenal.
“There is not a good manager without a good ownership,” mentioned Lijnders, when requested how Klopp revived Liverpool for this season. “The ownership invested in the squad where we needed to invest and that’s a really good sign. You bring energy, power, talent, young players and that energises the manager and the coaching staff because you are working with new players and you have to explain the idea again. So that’s one thing.
“The second thing, and probably the most important, is we really drew a line before pre-season started. I said as a joke that if anyone was negative in this building I would punch them in the face. I said that to every single one of them. Just to make sure that we didn’t carry anything over.
“Then pre-season starts and we had all the players available for a long time. A lot of key players went, seniors who were always the leaders, so new players had to step up – Mo Salah, Virgil, Alisson, Trent – and they did, they show, and then you can start training three times a day, which we didn’t do before. There was a voice in their head saying: ‘We want to be successful and so we have to go through this.’
“These things help, these things are crucial, but then you have to have success. You need to win games when you think that maybe you are not going to win them. That’s why Newcastle away was a massive one. That creates momentum. In the right moments the team really stepped up.”
Lijnders believes the event of Curtis Jones has additionally fuelled the restoration, in addition to improved distribution from central defence.
“I don’t want to go on constantly about the new players because if you see what Curtis did to the team since the end of last season it’s as good as a new signing,” he mentioned. “He doesn’t get the credit he deserves, maybe because he comes from the academy, I don’t know.”
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He added: “What does not often get seen is our centre-halves are playing much better with the ball. If you look at how close they play to the offence and how they are stepping in with the outside or inside pass – they are playing to a level we needed. They are making a big, big difference.”
Although Alexander-Arnold’s absence is a setback for Liverpool he might miss just one Premier League recreation, at Bournemouth, owing to the winter break and home cup fixtures. Lijnders revealed the left-backs Andy Robertson and Kostas Tsimikas might return by the top of the month from respective shoulder and collarbone accidents.
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