Pep Lijnders names Liverpool’s six role models for young players

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Pep Lijnders has named six role models at Liverpool. It’s a luxury the Reds haven’t had for a long, long time.

Gone are the days where you surveyed the Liverpool team and simply wrote down ‘Steven Gerrard’ under role models. That 13/14 team, for instance, was wonderful but it didn’t have leaders.

Gerrard was a leader, of course, and Luis Suarez led by example when he wasn’t biting people. Outside of that – maybe Kolo Toure? It was a young team, one who desperately needed leadership. That’s not a problem now.

Lijnders, Jurgen Klopp’s assistant, gave a press conference ahead of the Arsenal clash on Wednesday. The topic of youth naturally came up, given the probable lineup, and Lijnders mentioned the number of leaders at the club.

“If you have [James Milner], [Jordan] Henderson, [Adam] Lallana, Gini [Wijnaldum], [Virgil van Dijk], [Roberto Firmino], players who never whine or make excuses, who never give up, you can’t have better examples for youngsters to develop and grow,” he told the Echo.

Liverpool’s luxury

That’s quite an incredible luxury. How many other teams in Europe, let alone the Premier League, can boast that many key leaders in their squad? Lallana aside, all of them play virtually every game, too.

All of them carry even more respect, too, after the Champions League win last season. But really, this is more of a reason for that win than a result of it.

You probably have to go back to 08/09 to find something similar. Gerrard, Sami Hyypia, Pepe Reina, Jamie Carragher, Xabi Alonso, Dirk Kuyt – all club legends who brought that leader role.

That too was a great Liverpool side, of course. Having those role models can push a side to greatness and Lijnders has really shone a light on that fact.