Jurgen Klopp’s former Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders was sacked by Red Bull Salzburg less than a month before the German was appointed as global head of football operations.
Lijnders was promoted from LiverpoolBrendan Rodgers’ Under-18s in Brendan Rodgers’ first-team staff in the summer of 2015. The energetic manager was initially retained by Klopp, who took over a few months later and remained in place until he moved to Dutch second-tier NEC Nijmengen in January 2018. Like his time at Salzburg, Lijnders’ spell in the Netherlands was short and sweet.
RB Salzburg finished runners-up to Sturm Graz in the 2023/24 campaign, hinting at a sense of decline after ten successive titles, but the well-funded Austrian giants have accelerated their downward spiral under Lijnders this term.
At the time of Lijnders’ departure, Salzburg were fifth in the top flight, already ten points behind league leaders Sturm Graz.
The former Liverpool manager, who returned to Anfield after their failure at the NEC in 2018 before following Klopp out the door last summerhe had managed to guide his team to the new look league stage Champions League. However, the European elite has proven to be an unforgiving stage. RB have lost five of their six games for a total of 3-18.
Salzburg won their last match with Lijnders heading into Austria’s winter break after a 3-0 league win against Austria Klagenfurt.
However, the club had seen enough. Chief executive Stephan Reiter and sporting director Rouven Schroder released a joint statement on a season that “has not been satisfactory”.
“It was clear to see that in many of our matches we have been very far from our own requirements and objectives,” the statement read. “Therefore, we have become convinced that our team needs a new impetus under a new management, even if we continued to wait for a turnaround until the end.
“We would like to thank Pep for his work. He put a lot of effort and passion into it and has given an important boost to our further development.
“We are now very intensively looking for a new manager and will be in touch as soon as a decision is made. It is clear that we want to return to training on 3 January 2025 with our new manager in place.”
This search for a new manager could be helped by former Lijnders boss Jurgen Klopp. The legendary Liverpool manager announced his controversial decision to take over head of global football operations for Red Bull’s vast stable of clubs earlier this year ahead of its January 1, 2025 start date.
Klopp had considered Lijnders his own potential successor to Liverpool in the summer, but the Merseyside side eventually opted for Arne Slot. The pair have enjoyed and endured very contrasting seasons so far.
