Last months of Pepijn Lijnders at Liverpool FC
Just like many (top) players, Pepijn Lijnders has also spent several years working at Liverpool FC. With this club, he won every trophy there is to win. That’s no surprise, as there was a perfect match between the club and the coach: both exude a deep passion for the game. De Voetbaltrainer visited him during the final month of his time in England (not knowing he would be back after one year, now as assistant coach of Pep Guardiola at Manchester City).
How did Klopp and Lijnders manage the disappointing results before the end of the season?
Finding Energy
"In April of 2024, our hopes for three trophies went up in smoke. We were knocked out of the Europa League by Atalanta, lost to Manchester United in the FA Cup, and fell too far behind in the Premier League. But in early May, we still had three games left.
After drawing West Ham United (2-2), we gave the players three days off and then prepared for Tottenham Hotspur in four days. You never know how a team will react to such major disappointment, but we were determined not to let the season—and our time at LFC—fade out quietly.
So we chose to hit the ground running from the very first training session that week. When I prepare a session, I always make sure our three core football principles are present:
1. We press or defend for one reason only: to attack. This creates a completely different mindset in players. We chase the opponent across the whole field, from all directions. Forwards aren’t done when their line is bypassed. They must track back and press from the blindside. There’s only one ball on the pitch, and it’s ours.
2. Everyone is responsible for everything. Everyone is a striker at some point. Just as attackers must defend, defenders must contribute to every attack. I think of Andrew Robertson’s goal from a Trent Alexander-Arnold cross just before halftime against Tottenham.
A telling image: one fullback (Trent) crosses, the other fullback (Robertson) finishes.
3. We want the ball, in the opponent’s half. Always with the intent to create more chances and always with superiority and flexibility in the center. On M-4, I started with the familiar Y-shape, but I demanded peak sharpness through coaching and using small target gates that players had to hit. Like passing gaps in a match. And they had to strike it hard, no soft rolls. The gate was one meter wide, the pass distance about twenty meters. It made the exercise very challenging, required high concentration, and set the tone for the training—and the week. Not unimportant: they also found it fun!"
Risk and Courage
"After that, we played a large tactical game (image 7), derived from our identity game (see next paragraph). In the upper half of the pitch, red had three attackers, two players in the half-spaces, and a midfielder behind them. They played against a goalkeeper, four defenders, and two holding midfielders (the '6s'). There was also an extra (white) player behind the striker. The goal was to create 1v1s on the flanks, find play between the lines, and work on counterpressing after losing the ball.
Then in the central zone around the halfway line, there was a 3v2 situation. Those three midfielders could be found by the blue team after winning the ball, allowing them to attack toward the other goal. The lower half was set up as 4v3 plus an extra attacker and a goalkeeper for the defending team.
By keeping the field dimensions tight, we avoided excessive sprinting at top speed. The aim was to play two sets of eight minutes, though the second round lasted longer because I saw the execution quality remained high. I didn’t mention Tottenham at all on M-4. We focused solely on ourselves.
Playing with risk and courage, playing between the lines, striking the ball hard, creating space—that was our focus. During the larger game, players still struggled to play risky balls behind the opposition’s last line. During the break, we stressed this again: play with risk. The worst thing that can happen is we lose the ball—and then we play counterpressing. That helps players feel they’re allowed to make mistakes and play freely."
Identity Game
"On M-3, we did a warm-up positional game: 8v4 in four small zones. Total area: 8x8 meters, though next time I’d make it slightly bigger. The focus was on combinations between the lines. Everyone stays in their own zone. One-touch play only. Lots of short-short-longer passes. Playing between players, always looking for the next combination. The drill often went quite well, though not everything worked for every player—as expected.
Some showed their frustration. That’s not what we want to see. ‘If you’re already getting frustrated in a training drill like this and your opponent sees your body language, how will that go in a real match where much more is at stake and many more eyes are watching you?’
We then did a dynamic 3v2 attacking drill, going both ways. Lots of transitions. Then came the identity game, with full focus on our playing style.
Red: midfielders with attackers. White: defenders with 2 midfielders and 1 striker.
The players reached a really high level during this. We call it the identity game because every key aspect of our football shows up in it. When we play from penalty box to penalty box, we usually do it without the offside rule. That way, the red team can build confidence with more success experiences.
Or we’ll do one eight-minute round without offside and another with offside. If we use the full pitch, offside is applied. After losing the ball, red must press immediately—it's the only way to defend the (pass over) halfway line. If the blue team crosses halfway, white becomes the opponent and red is done.
This article is just a little piece out of the complete article in magazine De Voetbaltrainer.