Given the news of Jurgen Klopp’s contract extension, we are also supremely lucky to have four more years of Pep Lijnders.
The 39-year-old was asked to share his analysis of Liverpool’s Champions League victory over Barcelona in 2019 and he explained the role of one key player: “I just spoke to Hendo and told him that I watched the [Barcelona] game back and I told him ‘You are everywhere, always in the right space and always in the right moment’.
“I remember one moment in the 85th minute and he had to defend, we were defending deep of course and he was making a sprint of probably 30/40 metres to put the pass forward away from [Clement] Lenglet.
“He [Henderson] told me: ‘Pep, if this game was 120 minutes, I would still be running like that’.
“And he said why, I like a tactics board and it’s beautiful to explain a lot of things but you cannot explain emotion and you cannot explain what’s around.
“There were probably 60,000 Liverpool fans giving us so much energy, giving us so much passion, that we felt from the first second that it was possible we could change it”.
It’s amazing to listen to the Dutchman and watch his precision understanding of all aspects of our game on that famous night.
This segment is also testament to the role of Jordan Henderson in the squad, saying he would have been able to play for another half-an-hour – for his teammates and for the fans.
It will always be a famous night in our illustrious history but this level of detail provided by our assistant manager makes you watch it in a completely different way.
You can watch Lijnders’ thoughts on Henderson (at 5:28), or watch the full video via The Coaches’ Voice on YouTube: