But why did the previous manager leave? They were in top spot at the time were they not? If there were behind-the-scenes problems, then surely they existed regardless of who was manager?
I'm genuinely interested, as it seems strange to call a 50% win rate "Woeful" unless it's a top club in a one-team league (ahem, Celtic)
Their previous manager was Adrie Bogers, the club's assistant. He was put in place reluctantly as the club did not succeed in finding somebody for the job last summer. He agreed to take the helm until whenver the club found a new man. The club enjoyed a decent enough first half of the season and were well placed to win the division when Lijnders came in. Performance levels dropped, the team's two key players struggled for form. Off the pitch, Lijnders apparently fell out with his asisstant and various first-team players(he even sent the goalkeeper on holiday and turned to someone who hadn't played professional football in two years). As spells go they hardly come more disastrous.
They had the chance to take charge of the league at Oss and lost 3-0 in the game they had in hand. They had the chance to really wrap things up when their rivals went through a spell of picking up one point in five, but never quite seemed to get the decisive advantage. They then got offered a rematch at the Ajax reserves because the Dutch FA had glossed over the fact that one of the Ajax players was ineligible. They lost again. On the final day, they could not even beat a 10-man Dordrecht who had both eyes on their play-off games to keep the pressure on. Then when they had to try and gain promotion through the play-offs, their first game was a 4-0 trashing by Emmen, a team they really should have beaten.
NEC are notorious for being poorly-run(hence they are second tier) and having a tough fan base to win over, but being Dutch Lijnders should have known that. This was not the time to try all sorts of new tactics, it was just a matter of contiuning on the right track that was laid out when he first arrived. All of this is definitely not me saying that he is not fit to do the job he does at Liverpool, but he was quite culpable of some serious errors(who knows, we might one day consider them to be 'tuition fees') in his first job as a manager.