Pepijn Lijnders (born 24 January 1983) is a Dutch

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

who is assistant coach at

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

. Lijnders has predominantly worked as a backroom staff coach, most notably spending two spells as Jurgen Klopp's assistant at

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. He has also had spells as manager of both

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

and Red Bull Salzburg. In June 2025, he joined Manchester City as

Pep Guardiola Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Catalans, Catalan professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player from Spain who has been the manager of club Manchester City F.C., Ma ...

's new assistant coach.

Coaching career

Early career

Lijnders began his managerial career in 2002 with

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

, helping with youth training and individual player development. In 2006, he moved to

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

and helped develop their youth academy, working under guidance of Vítor Frade and Luís Castro. During his time in the club he worked under Jesualdo Ferreira,

André Villas-Boas Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas (; born 17 October 1977) is a Portuguese sports executive, and former professional Manager (association football), football manager, who is currently the List of FC Porto presidents, president of Port ...

, Vítor Pereira and Paulo Fonseca.

Liverpool

In 2014, Lijnders moved to

as development coach under

Brendan Rodgers Brendan Rodgers (born 26 January 1973) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who is manager of Scottish Premiership club Celtic. Rodgers began his career as a defender at Ballymena United, where he stayed until h ...

, and later continued with

Jürgen Klopp Jürgen Norbert Klopp (; born 16 June 1967) is a German football executive and former Manager (association football), manager and Football player, player. He is widely regarded as one of the best football managers in the world. Klopp has been ...

as assistant coach, as well as first team trainer with Klopp.

NEC Nijmegen

On 2 January 2018, Lijnders accepted the managerial job at

in the Dutch

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

, signing a year and a half long contract. On 17 May 2018, Lijnders was dismissed after NEC failed to gain promotion to the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

in the

promotion play-offs Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

Return to Liverpool

Lijnders returned to the Liverpool coaching staff on 5 June 2018. He was part of the coaching staff that helped Liverpool win their sixth

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

on 1 June 2019, their first

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup (FIFA CWC) is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The compe ...

on 21 December 2019, and the

title at the end of the 2019–20 season. In 2022, Lijnders published his first book, ''Intensity: Our Identity'', an inside account of Liverpool's 2021–22 season. Later that year, Lijnders defended himself against suggestions that his book had "exposed" Liverpool's secrets. On 26 January 2024, it was announced that, along with

, Lijnders would be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season. Lijnders was expected to pursue his own managerial career after his departure from Liverpool.

Red Bull Salzburg

On 15 May 2024, Lijnders signed a contract as the new Red Bull Salzburg manager. Early in the 2024–25 season, Lijnders faced criticism after he demoted Austria's national team goalkeeper Alexander Schlager to the bench, fielding Janis Blaswich on loan from Leipzig. Blaswich conceded 12 goals in Salzburg's first three Champions League games. On 16 December 2024, it was announced that Salzburg were parting ways with Lijnders after 29 games in charge of the club with Salzburg chasing a 10-point deficit in the Austrian Bundesliga.

Manchester City

On 10 June 2025, Lijnders was announced as

's new assistant coach at

Managerial statistics

References

External links

Sport.de Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lijnders, Pepijn 1983 births Living people People from Horst aan de Maas Dutch football coaches Dutch football managers Eerste Divisie managers NEC Nijmegen managers FC Red Bull Salzburg managers Liverpool F.C. non-playing staff PSV Eindhoven non-playing staff Manchester City F.C. non-playing staff Sportspeople from Limburg (Netherlands) FC Porto non-playing staff Dutch expatriate football managers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate football managers in Austria 21st-century Dutch non-fiction writers