Liverpool played every possible game of last season, winning the Carabao and FA Cups, finishing runners-up in the title race after a final day of Premier League drama, and making it to the Champions League final.
Jurgen Klopp’s assistant Pep Lijnders logged each high and low from pre-season training through to the Paris showcase.
In this serialisation of his brilliant new book ‘Intensity: Inside Liverpool FC - Our Identity’, Lijnders reveals what happened before, during and after the 5-0 win away to Manchester United...
“You Scouse b******s,” the fans chanted at us as we arrived at the stadium. I thought to myself: but we’ll leave here as Scouse winners today. And so it proved.
Final no9, 5-0 on a historic occasion for us at United. A dark day for them, another three points for us. I was lost for words, to be honest. We wanted to write our own history, Jürgen said after the game, and we did. This one definitely went into the history books.
I will try to capture what we wanted and what we ultimately saw. When we practised our finishing two days before the game, this was exactly what you wanted to see, low in the corners with speed. Searching for clinical, quick finishes, always ready for the rebound. Our front three were like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park.
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We started the game with a real offensive plan. How Bobby connected the game inside and moved to open spaces for Diogo and Mo was impressive. Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof never felt comfortable jumping with him, so we were always able to have an advantage in the centre and, at the same time, Diogo and Mo used the space that was being freed from Bobby to attack the centre.
One goal for Diogo, three for Mo and a world-class game from Bobby. With a striker like Bobby, everything becomes easier. We scored some incredible team-play goals. The low crosses after our inside-play worked out perfectly, with Jota sliding in for the second goal.
Making it 4-0 just before half-time was a game-decider. At half-time Jürgen literally said, “What do you guys want? In five years we will discuss how this could have happened, or that they have to discuss how this could have happened.”
All the boys understood what he was saying: we needed to improve in the second half! We showed images where we played well, insisted in our plan to find the centre and speed up with movements and options everywhere.
I was so pleased for Ibou after he had an incredible game because it wasn’t easy to come into the team against United. But my highlight of the day was Hendo playing the first pass forward to isolate Mo in front of David De Gea.
The new speaker we had played music so hard after the game – as loud as the Atletico stadium after they made it 2-2. “Musica!” the boys normally scream after a big win. On the bus Jürgen and myself made a line-up for the Preston League Cup game.
Serialised from ' Pep Lijnders' 'Intensity: Inside Liverpool FC - Our Identity', published by Reach Sport, on sale from liverpoolfc.com/store and reachsportshop.com.
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