Lijnders, who worked under both Brendan Rodgers and Jurgen Klopp throughout a successful nine-year stint on Liverpool's backroom staff, joined Salzburg in May.

However, his second spell as a number one – after a brief stint with Dutch side NEC in 2018 – proved underwhelming, with Salzburg sitting fifth in the Austrian Bundesliga.

It signed off for the winter break by beating Austria Klagenfurt 3-0 at the weekend, but that was just its second victory in their last eight games across all competitions.

Perhaps surprisingly, the decision comes just weeks before Lijnders' former boss Klopp takes over as Red Bull's head of global soccer – a position that will give him oversight of Salzburg's strategy.

In a joint statement, Salzburg chief executive Stephan Reiter and managing director of sport Rouven Schroder said: "We began recently to analyse, as planned, what has unfortunately not been a satisfactory season so far. 

"It was clear to see that in many of our matches we have been far short of our own requirements and aims.

"We are now very intensively looking for a new coach and will communicate as soon as a decision is made. We clearly want to start training again on January, 3, 2025 with our new coach in place."

In the Champions League, Salzburg has taken just three points from six matches, beating Feyenoord 3-1 in November but suffering convincing defeats against Sparta Prague (0-3), Brest (0-4), Dinamo Zagreb (0-2), Bayer Leverkusen (0-5) and Paris Saint-Germain (0-3).

It faces Spanish giant Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in its final two league-phase games in January.