Liverpool should replace Jurgen Klopp with his assistant Pep Lijnders because he could hit the ground running next season, according to Phil Thompson.
The Reds are looking for a replacement for Klopp, who announced on January 26 that he would step down at the end of the season. Owners Fenway Sports Group have hired former Liverpool sporting director Michael Edwards to help with the decision and the group are remaining tight-lipped about their thinking.
Ex-Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso emerged as the early favourite due to his impressive work at Bayer Leverkusen, but the German side are desperate to keep him. Lijnders will leave alongside Klopp at the end of the season and has ruled himself out of the running to replace him, but Thompson would like him to stay put and step up.
“I don’t think he’d [Lijnders] have too many objectors [to replace Klopp], Liverpool fans, if they know enough about the club and the people behind the scenes and the back-up staff for Jurgen,” the former Reds centre-back said on talkSPORT.
“Pep Lijnders is a fantastic coach and if you watch him on the training ground, he is full of it, full of energy and ideas. I would have no problems with him being it. If they announced it I would say yes. There must be something else in the offing for Pep Lijnders. Whatever he does, if he goes with Klopp [or] on his own, I will wish him that best but if he was offered the job I would like to think Pep would have considered it at least.”
Klopp is in agreement with Thompson over Lijnders’ characteristics. “The most influential guy in the last years definitely in this club was Pep Lijnders,” he said in January. “The job he did is absolutely exceptional. The inspiration he is for me is absolutely exceptional.”
But Lijnders has insisted he will seek a managerial role elsewhere. "Nobody will replace Jurgen. I was clear, to be honest, when we had the talk a long time ago – for me it was clear and it made it easier for me,” he said.
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“We agreed to finish this project together and it is the right way to do it. They will find a new coach with ideas and I am excited to manage to find the right club.”
Lijnders joined Liverpool in 2014 to become assistant manager and while he briefly left in 2018 to manager NEC in his homeland of the Netherlands, he quickly returned. Mirror Football reported earlier this month that Ajax had put Lijnders on their shortlist for their next manager, alongside Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag.
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