Pep Lijnders believes the benches of both Liverpool and Manchester City have a responsibility to set the right example for supporters ahead of their latest blockbusting showdown.
Matches between the two sides have been marred in recent times by a series of unsavoury incidents, most recently during October's Premier League meeting at Anfield when City fans were guilty of abusive chants referencing the Hillsborough and Heysel disasters while City boss Pep Guardiola was targeted by coins thrown from the Main Stand.
Ahead of Thursday’s Carabao Cup fourth round clash at the Etihad, Liverpool chief executive Billy Hogan and City counterpart Ferran Soriano released a joint statement aimed at addressing such behaviour with the threat of stadium bans.
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And Liverpool assistant manager Lijnders accepts there is an onus on the coaching staff of both teams to behave and not incite any possible further issues.
“Of course,” he said. “Top sport is emotion. It’s going to edges, top sport is seeing the line that you want to go over but you hold yourself. For us it’s impossible to be fully emotional because the game is too quick for that. If I’m emotional to one side (of the pitch) the ball is already on the other side or Pep (Guardiola) has already changed something tactically and we have to be aware to counter it or whatever.
“The ones who control their emotions are always the ones who go furthest. Control your emotions, don’t let the emotions control you. We are an example of that in our team.”
The joint statement from Liverpool and City, which was released on Tuesday morning, was sent to supporters of both clubs, urging them to report any unacceptable behaviour while indicating the pair remain committed to educating fans who are unaware of the impact of their actions.
Lijnders has welcomed the statement, and said on Wednesday: “It’s very positive that both clubs are co-operating. Ferran and Billy made a good statement, it was really clear.
“I worked at Porto for seven years and PSV Eindhoven for five years, and the rivalry between PSV, Feyenoord and Ajax was from a different level. The rivalry between Porto, Benfica and Sporting was a different level. The only reason it’s a rivalry is because the games matter, the games are decisive.
“Tomorrow is a decisive game, but playing against City (anyway) has this importance. With rivalry comes emotion, and that’s good because we need emotions from the stand, we need emotion for our players, we need to feel that these games matter in each second of the game.
“The only problem with emotion is when there’s no respect, then it becomes really harmful and that can’t happen. It happened, but I really think it’s positive that both clubs are co-operating.”
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