Pepijn Lijnders has voyaged out on his own after taking on the role as head coach of Red Bull Salzburg, and his life in Austria got off to a winning start this weekend.
The Dutchman traded in his title as assistant coach at Liverpool at the end of last season to establish himself in a top job, and he took Vitor Matos and Andreas Kornmayer with him.
The trio swapped Merseyside for Salzburg, and their pre-season is already underway as their season commences on August 2, a fortnight earlier than the Premier League.
A training camp in Saalfelden, not unfamiliar to Lijnders, is underway and their schedule includes a number of friendlies, the first of which took place on Saturday against German third-tier side SpVgg Unterhaching.
As we saw under Jurgen Klopp, Lijnders named two different XIs for each half of the match. Salzburg ended the first half with a 2-0 advantage and added a third in the second half for a 3-0 win.
In action ?#RBSUHG ??? pic.twitter.com/wVi14MCBZd
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The 41-year-old deployed a 4-3-3 formation, and the identity he wants from his side will be of no surprise to Reds, intensity.
Discussing the win with Salzburg’s official website, Lijnders said: “We wanted to pen the opponents back into their own half, press them and bring our intensity to bear.
“We asked a lot of the players in these temperatures and after a really hard week of training. We still have to find our way further, but we had good energy, a good tempo and good body language.
“That’s the attitude we want to dominate matches with.”
He has taken a lot of lessons from Liverpool and has already discussed how he wants to see them in action at Salzburg, from the leadership group to a focus on youth.
While only a pre-season outing, and the first one at that, Lijnders will no doubt take confidence from his first game at Salzburg.
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