Pep Lijnders facing player revolt over Liverpool stars 'who are not good enough'

All is not well in Salzburg. Former Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders became its manager this summer but the Red Bull side has not made the best start to 2024/25.

There is now talk of potential dressing room unrest thanks to Lijnders’ faith in Bobby Clark and Stefan Bajcetic , two players with whom he worked with at Anfield . The latter is only in Austria on loan, but the former sealed a permanent $13m (£10m/€11.8m) move from Liverpool this summer.

Salzburg became accustomed to winning the Austrian title, doing so for 10 years straight up to 2022/23. However, it finished second last season and sits third this term, albeit with two games in hand. A disastrous start in the Champions League won’t have helped the mood around the club either.

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In matchweek one, Lijnders’ side lost 3-0 away at Sparta Prague. If that wasn’t bad enough, a 4-0 loss to Brest at the Red Bull Arena on Tuesday definitely was. Clark started that match, while Bajcetic came off the bench for the final 13 minutes. Salzburg sits third bottom of the table in the Champions League league phase.

While all is far from lost – it is only three points behind Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid, for instance – the Austrian outfit has played its two matches against teams from Pot 4 in the draw.

It’s little wonder discontent has begun to fester and leak out into the press. It has been reported by Kronen Zeitung that some members of the Salzburg squad are puzzled by Lijnders ’ team selections, with his repeated use of Bajcetic and Clark purely down to him having worked with them in the past.

The implication, it's added, is that the youngsters’ teammates do not believe they are good enough to be starting for the side. It will be fascinating to see if Lijnders selects either of the pair this weekend when Salzburg travel to face league leaders and fellow Champions League side Sturm Graz.

It is probably the hardest domestic game of the campaign and it sounds like it is time for Clark and Bajcetic to deliver. Lijnders’ job might just depend on it.

Liverpool.com says: Lijnders is far from alone in being a manager who puts faith in players with whom he has worked in the past. Assuming there is unrest in the Salzburg dressing room, though, he needs to put a lid on it as soon as he possibly can.