ANPPepijn Lijnders
NOS Voetbal•vandaag, 15:45
Trainer Pepijn Lijnders has been fired from Red Bull Salzburg. The Dutchman has been at the helm of the Austrian club since this summer.
In the past eleven years, RB Salzburg became champions ten times. This year the team is in fifth place in the Austrian league, ten points behind leader and reigning national champion Sturm Graz. Seven of the sixteen matches were won. Last Saturday they won 3-0 against Austria Klagenfurt.
“It was clear to see that in many matches we have not met our own demands and objectives. We have become convinced that the team needs new impetus under a new coach, even though we continued to hope for a turnaround,” the club said on its own website.
Only Feyenoord was beaten
Although the Salzburgers beat Feyenoord 1-3 in De Kuip, things are not going well in the Champions League either. The other five matches were lost, leaving the club in 32nd place (out of 36) and facing elimination.
Lijnders was briefly head coach at NEC in 2018. He was fired again after 22 games. Before and after that, the 41-year-old trainer was Jürgen Klopp’s assistant at Liverpool.
It is striking that Klopp will start his new job as ‘Global Head of Soccer’ at Red Bull in the new year. The Austrian club, like RB Leipzig and New York Red Bulls, falls under the energy drinks company’s group. Lijnders will therefore not work with the German again.