Latest Liverpool news: Honigstein claims Buvac left due to Lijnders’ growing influence at Liverpool

Zeljko Buvac left the Reds during a crucial time a season ago. We were fighting for the Champions League title but lost the final to Real Madrid.

The Bosnian-Serb was with Jurgen Klopp for 17 years before deciding to leave the German, and Raphael Honigstein has explained why the assistant left the Reds.

The Express carries quotes from the updated version of Honigstein’s biography on Klopp, and claimed that the growing influence of Dutch coach Pep Lijnders was the reason.

The report claims that the relationship between Klopp and Buvac is still strong, but the Bosnian felt he could no longer work at Anfield.

Honigstein wrote (h/t Express):

“The Liverpool [staff] had noticed that the notoriously taciturn Bosnian had switched from monosyllabic to zero-syllabic in the last few months.

“Buvac gave the impression that he wasn’t happy with the increasing influence of the fourth assistant coach Pepijn Lijnders.

“The relaxed, bright Dutchman had been very popular with the players.

“The relationship between Buvac and Klopp had survived, both could simply no longer work together.”

The Dutch coach left the Reds to try his luck as a manager but did not succeed with NEC Nijmegen. The 36-year-old has grown at Anfield since his return and has been promoted as Klopp’s assistant after Buvac’s departure.

The new dynamic has worked for Liverpool

Buvac was the brain behind Klopp’s teams, but things have worked out fine for us without the Bosnian.

Liverpool won the Champions League last season and narrowly missed out on the Premier League title.

We have a great base to work with and should improve in the coming years, thanks to a great set of coaching staff.

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This should be the start of a great era for the Reds, and Klopp should help us to several trophies in the coming years.