When Jurgen Klopp fails to step out as Liverpool manager at Stamford Span on Dominicus, fans could exist seeing a glimpse of the future.

The 54-year-sometime returned a suspected positive Covid-19 test in the build-upwards to the Premier League match and will not be in the dugout when the Reds confront Chelsea.

Merely Klopp's assistant, Pepijn Lijnders, will be there taking charge in his absence, having been tipped to replace the German when he eventually leaves Merseyside.

Lijnders will, albeit non for long, have the opportunity to show his credentials every bit boss in a potential championship race 6-pointer, with Manchester Metropolis going 11 points articulate at the top of the table on Saturday.

And that could be concerning news for Steven Gerrard, a Liverpool fable from his playing days and now Aston Villa 'southward manager.

The Liverpudlian icon spent 17 years at Anfield and briefly coached the lodge's Nether-18s before moving into senior coaching in 2022 and setting out his aims of ane day returning.

Join the argue! Who should supercede Klopp when he leaves Liverpool? Comment your thoughts below.

Gerrard's "dream" is to manage Liverpool

Gerrard memorably told ex-Reds squad-mate Jamie Carragher on his Greatest Game podcast : "My aim, dream, would be to manage Liverpool Football Club.

"Of course it would, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't."

Although Gerrard is iii-and-a-half years into his managerial career and spectacularly earned his stripes in Scotland with Rangers, Lijnders has been a jitney since 2002 and spent five months in accuse of NEC Nijmegen in his native Netherlands.

Having failed to bring the club up to the Eredivisie in 2018, the Dutchman was sacked and swiftly returned to Liverpool, becoming Klopp's No.ii after first arriving four years prior under Brendan Rodgers.

But the 38-year-old maintains his desire to exist a No.ane again, telling reporters in Dec 2021: "That'south the plan but Jurgen knows this.

"This isn't the time to speak about these things because I have a contract until 2024.

"When the time comes, I will sit down with my direction and will encounter the options I have.

"But we are in the middle of this project, this beautiful projection, and after that I will make up one's mind. Simply definitely, yeah, that'south the plan.

"This is non the moment to speak about these things [replacing Klopp].

"I volition speak with my management in 2024 and we will run across all the options that are on the table."

Klopp evidently holds Lijnders in high regard, explaining to his society'due south website in 2017: "Pep has become unbelievably important in a brusk fourth dimension because he writes everything down.

"He is also part of 'the brain' because he is our mind to call back the things what we did in previous sessions.

"He brings us the next coaching generation. We are not old but nosotros are already that long in the business organization, so it's normal that you have routines, y'all utilise them and they are proficient.

Lijnders has been tipped to eventually replace Klopp

"We endeavor to stay open up all the time, only with Pep he is our connecting signal to the present and the hereafter, and so that's really, really important."

Appointing Lijnders would, of course, be somewhat of a throwback decision for the club, every bit Bob Paisley replaced young man legendary managing director Bill Shankly in 1974, maintaining continuity and the Reds' unrivalled success.

That era harboured the famous 'Anfield Boot Room,' which became synonymous for promoting from inside, as Joe Fagan, Kenny Dalglish, Ronnie Moran, Graeme Souness and Roy Evans all fabricated their way upward through the ranks.

Lijnders is well aware of that time in the club'due south history, too, quoting one of Shankly's most famous lines about Liverpool in a 2022 pre-lucifer press conference, a task he often undertakes for cup matches.

Accept your say! How should Liverpool line up at Chelsea? Pick your squad beneath.

When asked about the harmony at Anfield in this modern era, he explained: "As we say, it's the holy trinity: the fans, the managing director and the squad."

Notwithstanding, Gerrard has as well received praise from the man currently in the Anfield hot seat, particularly earlier the former Reds captain returned with Villa last month for a narrow 1-0 defeat.

"Yes, absolutely I remember [Gerrard volition i day manage Liverpool]," Klopp stated.

"Everything what Stevie has washed so far looks expert and is going admittedly in the right direction.

"I tin can't see a scenario where I volition be involved in that decision to be honest, but who knows what the hereafter brings? We will see."

I affair is for sure, Gerrard will be watching closely when Lijnders' Liverpool take on Chelsea.

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