Lijnders reveals argument with Liverpool legend Klopp that left him ‘really upset’
Former Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders has revealed the details of a rare argument with Jurgen Klopp over Conor Bradley.
The Dutchman left Liverpool at the end of last season along with Klopp after the latter decided to call it day at Anfield and take a break from football.
Lijnders went straight back into a job with Austrian side RB Salzburg hiring him as their manager before he parted ways with the club in mid-December after 29 matches.
Liverpool had nine successful years under Klopp with Lijnders joining the coaching staff in 2018 and was part of the team that helped the Reds win their sixth Champions League trophy in 2019 and the Premier League title in the 2019/20.
Lijnders and Klopp had a great relationship but the Dutchman has described a rare argument the pair were involved in, which the German “won’t remember”, over young right-back Bradley.
In the new four-part documentary ‘Doubters To Believers Liverpool FC: Klopp’s Era’, Lijnders said: “I remember that I really fought, proper fought, for Conor to be our No 2 behind Trent.
“I was really trying to keep him in the club because I believed that he would already be ready at that time.
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“The club makes the decision together with Jurgen get him out on loan, and it really, really upset me a lot. There was hard, hard words and it was probably one of the only confrontations I had with Jurgen. He won’t remember it anyway but I remember it.”
It is not the first time that Lijnders has opened up on a difference of opinion with Klopp, he told The Redmen TV last year: “My idea constantly was: the best No. 6 I had in the U16s was Trent Alexander-Arnold.
“It’s not to only have extra players inside, to have four here (in the midfield), to have the same as what Bobby Firmino did.
“But it’s also to have Trent in a position where the ball can fly from left to right. What I said constantly to Jurgen was: ‘We have to do it.’
“‘But Pep, blah blah blah’ [Klopp complained]. ‘We have to do it.’
“Until I was so sick of it that I went to Jurgen in this office and said, ‘Jurgen, next year you can f****** have all my f****** salary. If we don’t do it in the next game, it’s done for me. I can’t.
“‘We need the extra player, we need Trent there. I tell you it will work, it will work.'”
