On Wednesday, Jürgen Klopp let assistant manager Pep Lijnders take the pre-match press conference ahead of The Reds’ visit to play Lincoln in the EFL Cup.
This wasn’t the first time Lijnders had taken a press conference for Liverpool and it certainly won’t be the last. As ever, the former NEC Nijmegen boss spoke at length when posed questions from the gathered media.
Discussing the likely changes that would be made for the Lincoln City match, Lijnders said:
“It’s about finding a team that feels the responsibility to give everything tomorrow and finding a good balance in this.
“I said already last year, in these competitions is a great moment where you can combine experience with talent, which makes each other stronger; the fire of the young players, the risk of the young players, the bravery.”
Lijnders also commented on just some of the specific talents Liverpool will face against this Lincoln team and how they are certainly not shy in front of goal.
“Which we need tomorrow because we’re going to play against a side who will defend deep, that is ready to counter-attack, has real speed on the wings and real technical players on the inside. But set up for a good counter-attacking game; they scored five goals already, for example, this season from counter-attacks. At the same time, when they play they really play.
“The team we have to put into place tomorrow has to be a team that is very well prepared. If you have only three days in between two games, you have to use that time very wisely, you have to prepare the team. Sometimes it’s really interesting to prepare a team from day one after the last game. That’s what we try to do.”
Lincoln City vs Liverpool kicks off at 19:45 tonight and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland.
The winner of this game will host Arsenal in the fourth round of the competition, next week. The Gunners won 2-0 away to Leicester City last night.
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