CroJack
Key Player
I've just finished reading his book Intensity - Our Identity.
Here is what Klopp says about Lijnders.
"Pep is unique. I’ve never met anyone like him before and I’m not sure I’ll be fortunate enough to do so again in the future. He is studious and coaching-obsessed; he believes in the training process with a passion I’ve never seen before."
And here are some of the Lijnders' words.
- 'Training is our transfer,' is what one member of staff always says to me. He couldn’t be more right.
- Why would you get everything while you are not giving everything?
- I saw one of my quotes in big lettering on the wall: ‘Our identity is intensity’. The fact the players see that when they walk out of the dressing room makes me very proud.
- ‘Talents need models, not criticism’ is one of my favourite sayings. The young ones always surprise you and they took our game plan over the last year further than we could have ever imagined.
- As someone once said, ‘Logic gets you from A to B, but imagination will get you everywhere’. And that’s the strength of young talent.
- It’s about a strong collective idea which makes the individuals flourish. The team transforms the players, it's not the other way around. This is how we approach our training sessions. And with that, for us, the main ingredient is the defensive aggression off the ball, because the better you are in the 30 per cent you don’t have the ball, the more freedom and conviction it will give you to play attacking football.
- We train our passing in a non-conventional way. There is always freedom on where to pass and to move, and we add counter-pressing and pressing dynamics. We complete our training sessions by finishing crosses off. ‘Finishing to finish’, the best way to end the day on a high. When we can’t attack through the inside, we should be able to create with give-and-goes, or overlaps to create dangerous crossing situations. First outplay, then cross. It doesn’t matter who we play against, where we play, we will press them high and aggressively and we will attack and attack them again. Our style is to attack, with and without the ball.
- Training was very competitive that day. The players didn’t have time to think as we went through all different types of games in the space of an hour: keeping the ball in possession as a wake-up call; counter-attacks stimulating the last pass and finals to show some magic. I explained during the possession drill that when we can play one-touch football in these spaces, we can play well everywhere.
- ‘To innovate you need guts. To adapt you need an open mind.’
- You deal with a lot of egos in football, but at our club it looks like there are none – and the moment the best players put the team before themselves is the moment you can become a success story.
- The character of the coach becomes the character of the team.
-I took a call quite late that night from the owners of a Championship club. It was a great honour to be linked again to the plans there and I knew the ambition and passion of the owners very well. But my focus and commitment was with Liverpool Football Club. It was a relationship based on trust and quality. We were in the middle of our project at LFC and ready to attack this league again. The owners of the interested club told me they wanted a change in management and I was their no1 candidate, but it was not the right timing. You commit or you don’t, and when you do, you must be loyal to the project, to the club, to your colleagues.
- We had finished our session with the ‘gates game’ to simulate quick, sharp switches of play, to create free space and find the free gate. Play with
pressure, keep the ball in possession and attack the gates aggressively. If I had the chance I would repeat this exercise every day because it shows the necessity to speed up the play as much as possible to surprise.
- All players and all lines should dominate all defensive aspects, then you are never surprised. Read where the next pass will go – together we will force the mistakes, knowing that it’s never a mistake to defend forward.
- Jürgen said one of football’s best rules is ‘find the free player’ and when there is no-one free, ‘create a free player’.
- Marcelo Bielsa’s idea is that teaching how to defend is easier than teaching how to attack. Leeds defensive idea is to run all the time. To run is a decision for the will, Bielsa explains, but you need an indispensable amount of talent. He tells his team that his football is about four things: movement, rotation, concentration and improvisation. With this method, he believes he has more chance to win. You never win playing badly, you never win if you don’t attack. And with this he captured the process of a manager in the world of football: ‘We have to win’. He couldn’t be more right. This coach changed the fundamental way we see football, the way we understand training. That’s why so many coaches in world football have this huge respect for him.
- ‘We don't need to be the best team on this planet, but we need to be the team who can beat the best team on this planet.'
- 'A good team solves problems, a top team avoids them.'
- 'Counter-pressing isn't a proposal - it's a law.'
- ‘Coaching captures the brains of the players, but freedom and trust captures their hearts.'
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When he was talking about the Championship club that wanted him to take over and when he said “I knew the ambition and passion of the owners very well” it was clear that that Championship club wasn't Swansea.
Here is what Klopp says about Lijnders.
"Pep is unique. I’ve never met anyone like him before and I’m not sure I’ll be fortunate enough to do so again in the future. He is studious and coaching-obsessed; he believes in the training process with a passion I’ve never seen before."
And here are some of the Lijnders' words.
- 'Training is our transfer,' is what one member of staff always says to me. He couldn’t be more right.
- Why would you get everything while you are not giving everything?
- I saw one of my quotes in big lettering on the wall: ‘Our identity is intensity’. The fact the players see that when they walk out of the dressing room makes me very proud.
- ‘Talents need models, not criticism’ is one of my favourite sayings. The young ones always surprise you and they took our game plan over the last year further than we could have ever imagined.
- As someone once said, ‘Logic gets you from A to B, but imagination will get you everywhere’. And that’s the strength of young talent.
- It’s about a strong collective idea which makes the individuals flourish. The team transforms the players, it's not the other way around. This is how we approach our training sessions. And with that, for us, the main ingredient is the defensive aggression off the ball, because the better you are in the 30 per cent you don’t have the ball, the more freedom and conviction it will give you to play attacking football.
- We train our passing in a non-conventional way. There is always freedom on where to pass and to move, and we add counter-pressing and pressing dynamics. We complete our training sessions by finishing crosses off. ‘Finishing to finish’, the best way to end the day on a high. When we can’t attack through the inside, we should be able to create with give-and-goes, or overlaps to create dangerous crossing situations. First outplay, then cross. It doesn’t matter who we play against, where we play, we will press them high and aggressively and we will attack and attack them again. Our style is to attack, with and without the ball.
- Training was very competitive that day. The players didn’t have time to think as we went through all different types of games in the space of an hour: keeping the ball in possession as a wake-up call; counter-attacks stimulating the last pass and finals to show some magic. I explained during the possession drill that when we can play one-touch football in these spaces, we can play well everywhere.
- ‘To innovate you need guts. To adapt you need an open mind.’
- You deal with a lot of egos in football, but at our club it looks like there are none – and the moment the best players put the team before themselves is the moment you can become a success story.
- The character of the coach becomes the character of the team.
-I took a call quite late that night from the owners of a Championship club. It was a great honour to be linked again to the plans there and I knew the ambition and passion of the owners very well. But my focus and commitment was with Liverpool Football Club. It was a relationship based on trust and quality. We were in the middle of our project at LFC and ready to attack this league again. The owners of the interested club told me they wanted a change in management and I was their no1 candidate, but it was not the right timing. You commit or you don’t, and when you do, you must be loyal to the project, to the club, to your colleagues.
- We had finished our session with the ‘gates game’ to simulate quick, sharp switches of play, to create free space and find the free gate. Play with
pressure, keep the ball in possession and attack the gates aggressively. If I had the chance I would repeat this exercise every day because it shows the necessity to speed up the play as much as possible to surprise.
- All players and all lines should dominate all defensive aspects, then you are never surprised. Read where the next pass will go – together we will force the mistakes, knowing that it’s never a mistake to defend forward.
- Jürgen said one of football’s best rules is ‘find the free player’ and when there is no-one free, ‘create a free player’.
- Marcelo Bielsa’s idea is that teaching how to defend is easier than teaching how to attack. Leeds defensive idea is to run all the time. To run is a decision for the will, Bielsa explains, but you need an indispensable amount of talent. He tells his team that his football is about four things: movement, rotation, concentration and improvisation. With this method, he believes he has more chance to win. You never win playing badly, you never win if you don’t attack. And with this he captured the process of a manager in the world of football: ‘We have to win’. He couldn’t be more right. This coach changed the fundamental way we see football, the way we understand training. That’s why so many coaches in world football have this huge respect for him.
- ‘We don't need to be the best team on this planet, but we need to be the team who can beat the best team on this planet.'
- 'A good team solves problems, a top team avoids them.'
- 'Counter-pressing isn't a proposal - it's a law.'
- ‘Coaching captures the brains of the players, but freedom and trust captures their hearts.'
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When he was talking about the Championship club that wanted him to take over and when he said “I knew the ambition and passion of the owners very well” it was clear that that Championship club wasn't Swansea.
