RB Salzburg fire coach Lijnders after 'unsatisfactory' performances

The former assistant of Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool took over the helm at RB Salzburg in July this year. But Lijnders was sacked with the club currently lounging in fifth place in the Austrian Bundesliga - 10 points behind leaders Sturm Graz.
RB Salzburg also sit a lowly 32nd in the Champions League's revamped league phase, after losing five and winning just one of their six outings so far. Dutchman Lijnders, 41, "was released from duty today", the club said in a statement.
A "successful start to the season" when RB Salzburg again qualified for the Champions League "was followed by many unsatisfactory performances", the club said in a statement. "In far too many games we were far from our own expectations and goals," the club's management said, adding the team needed "a new impetus under new leadership".
The club is "working very intensively" to find a new coach to start training with the team from January 3, 2025, the statement added. Assistant coach Vitor Matos, who previously spent four-and-a-half years as Liverpool's elite development coach, will also no longer work for Salzburg, the club said. RB Salzburg have topped the Bundesliga more than a dozen times since Red Bull took over in 2005.