Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders has bizarrely been slammed for taking too much credit away from Jurgen Klopp by former Ajax forward Wim Kieft.
Lijnders first joined the Reds' first-team coaching staff in 2018, having previously worked as an Academy coach and later in a development role for players making the step-up to professional level.
He left the club to take on a new challenge as manager of Dutch side NEC Nijmegen in January 2018, though returned to Liverpool in May of the same year after being relieved of his duties.
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Since reuniting with the Reds, Lijnders has been part of the domestic success delivered by the as well as on the European stage.
Expressing his delight at the 39-year-old being back at Anfield as his right-hand man, Klopp said in 2018: "It’s good. It’s very, very good. We sent him away for half a year to get very important experience and to have him back now feels just fantastic.
“When he came in the building, everybody was really delighted about that and was really happy about it.
“He’s a fantastic person and a fantastic coach, so it’s really important that we have him back and I’m really looking forward to working together with him.”
Not everyone is as convinced by the Dutchman, though.
Kieft, a six-time Eredivisie winner and Euro 1988 champion, is of the view that Lijnders 'doesn't know his place' at Liverpool and has not held back with his assessment of the Reds' coach.
Writing in a column for De Telegraaf, via Sport Witnes s, Kieft has called into question a recent interview given by Lijnders with Dutch TV.
The column begins: "By the way, for those who didn’t know yet: Pepijn Lijnders, together with Jurgen Klopp, is the founder of the success of Liverpool. At least, according to Lijnders himself.
"During an interview for Dutch television, Klopp’s assistant caused curled toes by continuously talking about ‘Jurgen and I’. He only talked about the great cooperation, the openness of their relationship and the trust that had developed from that.
"An ostentatious attempt to take credit for himself or at least take some of the credit for Liverpool’s achievements.
"Whoever works as an assistant to Klopp; Liverpool’s success is Klopp’s success. He experiences the pressure as Liverpool’s head coach every day. The assistant is not under pressure.
"For him it is easy to dance on the table and be part of a successful group without being held responsible for its success. Lijnders should sometimes rub that under his nose," Kieft continued.
"It should be noted that Klopp and Lijnders are not, as Lijnders pretended, the ones who have put Liverpool on the map.
"Before their arrival in 2015, this great glorious and successful English club had already won numerous awards nationally and internationally, Liverpool had already been the best in Europe five times."
