Pieter Zwart, editor-in-chief of Football International, says that he sees Pepijn Lijnders working in the Portuguese league. Lijnders announced his retirement as assistant coach at Liverpool on Friday afternoon, in the wake of head coach Jurgen Klopp.
“He worked in Portugal for a long time at FC Porto,” Zwart says in the program De Voetbalkantine. “He has even said that he thinks in Portuguese. I think he perhaps fits into that culture a little better than in the Netherlands. He has been prepared by Klopp. He did the tactical discussions at Liverpool and even the press conferences in the League Cup , to get used to that aspect as well.”
Maaskant: “Lijnders absolutely has the qualities of a head coach”
Robert Maaskant, also a guest in the Voetbalkantine, believes that Lijnders was treated unfairly during his first period as head coach, at NEC in 2018. “He has been given a stamp. But in terms of quality, he can work at any Dutch club.”
