Pep Lijnders claims Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s decision to name-drop rivals Liverpool and Man City was a ‘compliment’ from United… and insists that ‘nobody can replace’ first-team boss Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders says the fact that the Merseyside club have been namechecked and complemented by new Manchester United chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe this week shows just how far the Reds have come in the last decade. 

The Old Trafford billionaire said this week that United would have to learn stark lessons from the way their rivals, such as Liverpool and Manchester City, had moved so far ahead in the 11 years since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.

And Jurgen Klopp’s right-hand man Lijnders has now laughed about that shows the improvements Liverpool have made to their culture in the nine years since the German boss took over on Merseyside.

‘But I think the past already showed a few difficult transitions. What was the most difficult transition inside this club was Bill Shankly saying, “That’s me”. Bob Paisley stepped up and was completely different from Shanks.

Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders has reflected on Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s decision to name-drop the Reds and Man City after completing his partial takeover at United

The British billionaire insisted that United had a lot to learn from their ‘noisy neighbours’ 

‘It shows we as a club we have to search for someone who wants to grow, who has the mindset to develop. It’s not for us, the owners can make good decisions about that, but I think we did the right thing by announcing early so the club has real time and to make this transition smooth.

‘But the past has already shown that it is really impossible. The Pep Guardiola team of Barcelona, he says out of nothing, “That’s me” and then Tito Vilanova took over and has the highest win ratio ever. That was probably the most difficult transition in the last 15 years.

‘I was at Porto when Andre Villas Boas won four trophies – the Europa League, the UEFA Cup at the time, in Dublin, the championship away at Benfica – and then Vitor Perreira took over and was completely different from Andre and became champion the year after.

‘For Porto that year was the biggest year ever. What I’m trying to say is they don’t have to replace Jurgen, they have to find a good, good manager because nobody will replace Jurgen.’