There has been an update as to who could take John Heitinga‘s place in the Liverpool dugout, with Dirk Kuyt being ruled out, and Pep Lijnders has completed his move to Man City.
Today’s Main LFC Headline
With Heitinga leaving after just one year at Liverpool, Arne Slot is in need of a new second assistant coach to work with him and Sipke Hulshoff.
Among those linked to the job was former attacker Kuyt, who has just been relegated as manager of Beerschot VA in Belgium.
The Dutchman won’t be returning to Liverpool, however, with his agent, Rob Jansen, telling the KieftJansenEgmondGijp podcast he “would have loved” the role but “it will be a different assistant manager.”
Another Dutchman we can rule out is Lijnders. In a surprise move, Klopp’s former assistant has now been confirmed as Pep Guardiola’s new assistant at Man City.
The Athletic have reported about how Guardiola and Lijnders sought Klopp’s approval before making the move.
The current favourite to take up a role at Liverpool is Marino Pusic. The Dutch-Croatian coach has just left Shakhtar Donetsk, going there to manage in 2023 after working with Slot at AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord.
Today’s Liverpool FC News
- Liverpool have announced two friendlies at Anfield will take place on August 4 against Athletic Bilbao – more details here
- There is “strong interest” in Nat Phillips from “a number of Championship clubs” including West Brom, according to the Athletic – let’s hope he finally gets his move
- It has been revealed that Stefan Bajcetic underwent hamstring surgery at the end of May – it probably rules him out of having a good pre-season
- Catalan newspaper Sport have claimed that Luis Diaz has informed Barcelona he has been told he could leave Liverpool for a certain fee –which is “far from” the £67.7 million fee rumoured
More from This Is Anfield
With so many rumours surrounding Liverpool’s search for a striker, Sam Millne decided to rank the seven most-heavily linked forwards this summer.
“Back in February, the head coach spoke of how he wants a “facilitator” in attack, someone who scores goals but allows others to flourish also – perhaps a player similar to Roberto Firmino with a more intrinsic knack for goalscoring.”
Ranking the 7 strikers linked with Liverpool transfer this summer
Elsewhere in the football world today
- England manager Thomas Tuchel believes “Liverpool and Arsenal a huge advantage” in the next season’s Premier League due to not playing in the Club World Cup – we hope so too, Thomas!
- Eintracht Frankfurt foward Hugo Ekitike, who Liverpool are reported to be interested in, will now not join Chelsea before the Club World Cup (Florian Plettenberg)
- Bournemouth are close to signing left-back Adrien Truffert from Rennes, Milos Kerkez’s replacement – you would, therefore, assume that Liverpool will sign the Hungarian soon (BBC Sport)
Liverpool FC: On this day
On this day in 1984, Liverpool legend John Barnes scored one of football’s all-time great solo goals, but he wasn’t wearing a red shirt on this occasion.
Three years before moving to Merseyside, Barnes was making a name for himself with Watford and had been selected for England to play in a 2-0 friendly win over Brazil.
On the Maracana turf, it was England’s Barnes whose silkiness stood out most, as he took the ball from the left flank, danced past yellow shirts and eventually went around the goalkeeper to finish.
Another fact about the goal for you is that British television viewers didn’t actually see it live, because the first half wasn’t televised due to Cilla’s Surprise Surprise being shown instead!
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