Who better to keep you informed of preseason happenings than our Pep himself?
Over the course of the Euros, Pep Lijnders acted as one of The Athletic’s guest writers, and penned a tactical analysis of the tournament that you should definitely give a read if you haven’t already.
The assistant manager has previously taken on press conference and coaching duties in incredible style, and currently sits at 3/1 to become the next Liverpool manager if Jürgen Klopp ever decides to step back.
Following his guest writer gig, Lijnders will be keeping a “Preseason Diary” on Liverpoolfc.com, and his Day One log has gone live.
His column is a great place to go if you want to stay abreast of what the preseason goals are — and to stay connected to the team if you would normally be going to some preseason games in a pre-COVID preseason tour.
It’s wonderful, too, to read about coaching from the perspective of a coach. In his pre-match press conferences for LIverpool, Lijnders often gives the impression of someone willing to share more direct information about his goals and intentions, and this column promises to illuminate Reds fans in a similar way.
For Lijnders, the preseason camp is a great opportunity with the players.
I have to be honest, I love the pre-season; for the manager and the coaching staff, this is the moment where the new ideas and the good “old” ones are developed. Firstly, it’s all about creating habits and showing our standards.
The Liverpool camp will be broken into three parts following these central goals.
We will go through this pre-season in three stages. The first one is going back to basics with the idea that we want to control games by being dominant in each moment. Secondly, it’s going back to consistency and, thirdly, it’s about creating an us vs the world mentality. No distraction, focus on the process and the collective. Something that will only work when we have the whole team together. This should make that wherever we go and whoever we play against, we will be able to put our game into place.
During these three stages we will increase the volume of intensity. Our intensity. This energy and passion will make us ready to be competitive for the first game of the season. We will use this camp, each session, to improve our group of players with dedicated and specific team training. It is and was always about the team, it comes first, it’s about the collective. It made us who we are. This rule is a non-negotiable one, even in pre-season. Especially when you are going to play a pressing game it’s about “togetherness” and “readiness” to fight for the team. This spirit will be present in each exercise we will put in front of our players. Within this spirit anything is possible for our players; outside this, nothing is possible.
I don’t know about you, but this proposed structure certainly gets me excited about what these lads can do in this season — and Pep agrees:
This season we want to make you proud, with our type of football and our energy. We believe that the better we play, the more games we will play this season. That will be the target: play as many games as we can. Let’s keep creating memories together! That’s how Jürgen explains so well the essence of working for a club like Liverpool Football Club. Creating memories.
Keep an eye on his Preseason Diaries as the next season looms (football never stops?), and get ready to panic over preseason friendlies (schedule to be found here).
