Featured Image Credit: Liverpool Football Club / Getty
Topics: Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool, Premier League, Football, Champions League
Ryan Smart
Topics: Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool, Premier League, Football, Champions League
Jurgen Klopp did something he had never done as a manager before Liverpool won the 2019 Champions League final, according to assistant manager Pep Lijnders.
Klopp will leave Liverpool at the end of the 2023/24 season, with the Champions League one of the eight trophies he has won whilst in charge at Anfield.
His final campaign has seen the Reds lift the Carabao Cup, although their Premier League title challenge has fallen away in the last weeks of the season.
The German will receive a rapturous reception from Liverpool when he takes charge of his final game at Anfield against Wolves next Sunday, with numerous plans in place to mark his farewell.
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And ahead of his departure, Klopp took part in a 'Roundtable' on Liverpool's official YouTube channel, also featuring Lijnders, academy director Alex Inglethorpe and players Cody Gakpo and Harvey Elliott.
Conversation turned back to the 2019 Champions League final, which saw Liverpool beat Tottenham 2-0 in Madrid.
During their reflections, Lijnders revealed what Klopp told him weeks before the final even took place.
He said: "I felt the pressure before that final, and the gaffer reminded me that he lost a lot [of finals] before!"
"I lost six or seven - seven - finals before that [with Dortmund and Liverpool]," Klopp interjected.
Lijnders continued: "So it was the seventh, and I remember him saying three weeks before: 'Pep, I want nothing to do with the planning about this final. I lost the last six. Up to you'. The planning. [I was like] 'Okay, cool'."
While we assume some of what Klopp said was partly in jest, the German has entrusted Lijnders with key responsibilities throughout his time at Anfield.
He regularly takes charge of press conferences for Liverpool's Carabao Cup matches, and is often seen as the main man on the touchline during those games.
In 2021, Lijnders spoke of his desire to be a manager in the future, and is expected to take charge of another club once he departs Anfield alongside Klopp this summer.
The Dutchman has been heavily linked with taking over at Ajax, with the role set to become vacant this summer.
He said: "That's the plan [to be a manager]. That is the plan, but Jurgen knows this.
"When the time comes, I will sit down with my management and will see the options I have. But definitely, yeah, that is the plan."