Liverpool: Jurgen Klopp credits John Achterberg with Alisson development
By David Gate
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has credited John Achterberg with the development of goalkeeper of Alisson in Wolves pre-match press conference.
Alisson Becker arrived at Liverpool as the most expensive goalkeeper in history and one of the best players in his position in the world. Remarkably, he has gotten better and Reds manager Jurgen Klopp credits John Achterberg with the progress achieved.
The Dutch coach was much maligned by fans who viewed the him as responsible for continued underperformance at the position.
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His promotion to first team duties at Anfield coincided with Pepe Reina dipping in performance levels. The Spaniard was replaced by Simon Mignolet in 2013 by Brendan Rodgers but the new keeper failed to progress in his time at LFC and despite good skills was prone to errors and lapses of judgement.
Loris Karius was brought to the club in 2016 to challenge the Belgian for a first team place but did little to usurp Mignolet from the team. Eventually he got his chance, playing for half a season before a horror show performance in the 2018 Champions League final led to him being loaned out.
The failings of those three keepers was squarely put on the shoulders of Achterberg by many fans but clearly the managers didn’t feel that way as three consecutive bosses – Kenny Dalglish, Rodgers and Klopp – persisted with him as the chief goalkeeping coach.
Klopp took time to mention the coach (and assistant goalkeeping coach Jack Robinson) as responsible for the Brazilian’s success before praising the player as a ‘very special person’ in his pre-match interview before tonight’s game at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
You can watch the whole segment on ESPN here.
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