Pep Lijnders: Liverpool’s Attackers “Are Like Raptors From Jurassic Park”

Liverpool have scored 13 goals in their last three games, coming away the victors in all three. Assistant manager Pep Lijnders, in the pre-match press conference before Liverpool travel to play Preston North End on Wednesday, was asked what accounted for this huge output of goals.

“Shooting from everywhere!” he joked. “No, I think it has to do with how the team is playing. You can never judge scoring just by the goals scored, it’s how we move the ball from out the back, it’s how we are protected, it’s the whole package that creates our front players getting constantly good positions to score. And then the quality of our front three, we said they look like raptors in Jurassic Park. They go for it, they are lethal and that’s what we want of course. If you score in the right moments, these games – for example, against Man United – can happen as well. But did we change anything? No, we always just want to improve.”

Of course, with most of the usual starting XI getting rested for this upcoming match, it will be up to other members of the squad.

Though it is no secret that a fresh team would be chosen on Wednesday, Lijnders all be confirmed it when asked about possible rotation of the team.

“We want to be good in each game, I think that’s what the fans expect from us,” he said. “The only way to do that is to be consistent – consistent in our way of play, in our ideas, in how we want to put our game in the opposition half, how we train each time. The second thing is to respect the recovery process and is to use our squad. Only that will make us consistent over a long period of time and that’s what we want to do. Our game needs freshness, we want our players to be unpredictable, we want them to feel free to attack. It’s really important that this freshness is there. We want to attack tomorrow’s game, that’s the only thing that counts and the only way to press how we press is with players who are fully, fully ready to do that.”

I think it’s fair to say that the likes of Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino, the two goalscorers in the last League Cup game, are fully ready to get back onto the pitch and impress once again.