Pep Lijnders reveals he BEGGED Jurgen Klopp to play Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield… as Liverpool assistant promised ‘you can have all my f****** salary’ to persuade reluctant Reds boss

Pep Lijnders reveals he has begged Jurgen Klopp to move Trent Alexander-Arnold into a hybrid midfield role at Liverpool. He even promised to give him “all my damn salary” to try it out.

Alexander-Arnold has done well when moved into the middle of the park when Liverpool have had the ball.

Without discounting Klopp’s tactical attributes, it’s fair to say that Lijnders has often been the mastermind behind the German’s extraordinary dominance on Merseyside.

He joined the club in 2014 to coach the Under-16 side, but when Klopp arrived in 2015 he saw something in the Dutchman and promoted him to the first-team starting line-up.

Now he has explained that he convinced Klopp to put Alexander-Arnold in midfield when Roberto Firmino left because they needed another man in the middle of the park. Darwin Nunez, he knew, would not come along and be the ball winner if Liverpool lost the ball.

Alexander-Arnold has added an extra dimension to his game with the midfield switch

“My idea was constant: the best number 6 I had in the U16s was Trent Alexander-Arnold,” said Lijnders The Redmen TV.

‘It’s not about just having extra players in, but having four here (in midfield), to have the same as Bobby Firmino.

‘But it’s also important that Trent gets into a position where the ball can fly from left to right.

‘What I kept saying to Jurgen was: ‘We have to do it.’

‘But Pep, blah blah blah’ [Klopp complained]. “We have to do it.”

‘Until I got so sick of it that I went to Jurgen in this office and said, “Jurgen, next year you can get all my damn salary. If we don’t do that, do it in the next game, it’s on me done, I can’t.

“We need the extra player, we need Trent there. I’m telling you it will work, it will work.’

For Lijnders, this was both a defensive and attacking move, leaving Liverpool in a state of preparation to react quickly if they lost the ball.

Klopp was initially reluctant to push Alexander-Arnold into midfield but agreed as they needed the numbers

Lijnders, Klopp’s assistant at Liverpool, is seen as the mastermind behind the success, without doing Klopp a disservice

“If you lose the ball, you have players close together,” he said.

‘We only had three players [in midfield]. Darwin is not a player who drops that low, Lucho can [he’s] a winger and Mo, no.

‘Who will be the extra player now? We could get a Cody Gakpo and try it that way, but he’s on the left [winger].

‘We can find another solution, but you are searching because you have a game every three days.’

Lijnders will take on a role at Red Bull Salzburg from the Austrain Bundesliga next season.