FeatureBehind the Badge: Andy Lonergan's second unexpected spell at Liverpool

Published
By Glenn Price at the AXA Melwood Training Centre

Andy Lonergan found himself needing to jog his memory when he rejoined the club last summer.

Reporting for his first day as Liverpool FC Women's goalkeeping coach, Lonergan was unable to remember the way to the AXA Melwood Training Centre.

He's not too proud to admit the sat-nav was relied on heavily that morning.

The facility in West Derby had been his workplace in the 2019-20 season, as a player in Jürgen Klopp's Premier League-winning squad.

But things were different now, five years on.

"I kept going in the wrong place because downstairs has all changed," Lonergan laughs while speaking to Liverpoolfc.com inside an office at Melwood. "And remembering to go into the staff changing room and not the players' one."

For Lonergan, becoming a coach for 'keepers was the natural step after 25 years in the professional game.

Joining Gareth Taylor's backroom staff represented the 42-year-old's first full-time role in coaching.

The opportunity was one he grasped like he would a lofted cross, having initially interviewed for a role in the Academy.

"It never crossed my mind at all," he says. "A good friend of mine is really good friends with Gaz and I've heard good things about him. So I'm like, 'Brilliant!'

"And then they said we train at Melwood and you couldn't ask for a better place. I came in, talked to him and I'm like, 'Yeah, why not?'

"I love it, absolutely love it. I think I'm good at it – I mean, other people might say it differently! – and I know a lot about it because I've been in the game so long.

"I just love being with the 'keepers. I love goalkeeping. I suppose I love football but I love goalkeeping more."

Looking back, Lonergan felt something like a coach during his first stint at the club.

With more than 400 appearances under his belt, the veteran felt in a position to offer whatever support he could to a goalkeeping unit that included up-and-comers Vitezslav Jaros and Caoimhin Kelleher, who he remains in close contact with.

"I felt like it was the start," Lonergan believes. "There was Jack [Robinson] and John [Achterberg], we had Alisson [Becker], Adrian, me, Caoimhin, Jaros, so there were quite a lot.

"A lot of the time two go to the first team and then there's me, Jack and Caoimhin and you just help them. That's what all senior pros should do, I think, and most do.

"It's like coaching in a way – it's just trying to help them."

He also feels being around Alisson on a daily basis was a high-level coaching course in itself.

Lonergan continues: "He's the GOAT. I can't have anyone say anything [different]. He is the best I've ever seen.

"A lot of my coaching, I say, 'Watch Alisson, watch this and watch that.' Because, for me, that is the perfect goalkeeper.

"He makes the most difficult things look easy. He's in the right position all the time, he's always in a set position, he's so quick.

"He reminds me of – and I didn't see as much of him as I would have liked – [Gianluigi] Buffon. If you go on YouTube and type in 'Buffon highlight reel', there aren't that many saves where you're going to go, 'Oh my God, what a save.' But that's a real compliment because he just makes everything look so easy – and Alisson's the same.

"Really difficult things he just makes look easy – and then he can make the world-class saves as well."

Lonergan initially joined Liverpool solely to train with the squad during their USA pre-season tour, on account of injury and unavailability in the position at that time.

But the stay would be for the entire campaign as he penned a contract in the aftermath of Alisson getting injured on the opening night of the Premier League campaign.

Lonergan did not make a competitive appearance – only featuring in a friendly against Sevilla in Boston – but was part of the matchday squad on eight occasions.

"It's something that I don't really talk about because I didn't play or I didn't do anything," he states when reflecting on that year. "I just trained.

"But as an experience, it was just a privilege. It was hard graft as well. The training was hard, intense. That was the first time I'd seen that level of intensity all the time.

"So to be coming from where I came from, where you could afford to have a few off days in the week and still be playing on a Saturday, if you didn't train right here, you weren't playing – regardless of who you were. Standards were so high.

"The fact that if you mention pressure and playing for Liverpool to them lads in that dressing room, they don't feel that. They're that good and that confident in their own ability that they love it.

"Whereas I reckon if I'd have been put in that situation, I'd have been like, 'Oh my God, don't make a mistake.' They're not thinking like that. That's what separates even your Premier League players from your elite. Luckily at the time, that squad probably had 20 players with that mentality.

"We lost at Watford away, the first loss of the season. There were rumours of the season stopping and all that, but I think if it was just a normal season I don't think that they'd have got beat. I just think there were a few little hiccups that no-one could control."

Premier League rules state that a player who has appeared at least five times in the season is guaranteed a winner's medal.

What happens with the remainder of the 40 medals received is at the champions' discretion.

"They gave us one. It meant a lot," Lonergan, who also received them for the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup wins, reveals.

"When we did the trophy presentation, I was embarrassed being there. I really felt like to just stay out of the way.

"Then we were all under the Kop lining up, because there was no crowd obviously, and they called out the names. It was the lads who hadn't played enough games first and they called my name and I'm like, 'I've got to go first, what a disappointment for everyone!'

"I went out and then just stayed at the back. I didn't lift the trophy and just let them have the [moment].

"Then when I came in, I think Jürgen gave me the medal and just said well done. It was a nice touch, it was lovely.

"They treated me brilliantly. It was unbelievable. I can't say enough about how much of a privilege it was to be a part of that.

"I'll be honest, the role I did, anyone could have done it – that's what I believe – if you're a decent goalie and train hard and you're a decent guy.

"I was just in the right place at the right time."

Does he ever look at those medals every now and then?

"I don't look after them," is the reply. "One, because I'm embarrassed that I've got them, because there's brilliant players that haven't got them. And two, they're with a Liverpool-supporting friend!"

Having had a brief taste of that greatness, Lonergan is confident something similar can now be built within the women's team.

The January loan signing of goalkeeper Jennifer Falk – who he feels is 'the best in the world' – and having Melwood as the squad's day-to-day base are two examples that spring to his mind to support that belief.

"I think it's already there," says Lonergan. "Look at it in there, you've got the best of everything.

"How we travel to away games is very similar to how the men's team travel – we have a chef on the bus. Nutritionists, sports science, everything's top level. This is elite."

On Falk, he adds: "I think we were lucky to get her in a way because she just wanted to come to Liverpool.

"The amount of teams that were after her, we've done really well to get her. You can see how good she is."

Lonergan speaks with an immense amount of enthusiasm at the goalkeepers currently under his stewardship: Falk, Faye Kirby and the vastly experienced Rachael Laws.

He wonders how many training sessions he's been involved in but reckons the one the day before this interview was the coldest – 'brutal', the word he uses to describe it.

Regardless, this new chapter of his life brings warmth and comfort in helping players get the best out of themselves.

"When I played, I've forgotten all about that completely. That's gone," Lonergan finishes. "I try not to talk about it.

"But I think I'm in a good position where I can say to the goalies, 'I've been there.' I take great satisfaction in watching them play well.

"I just want to be the best I can be for the goalies that I've got – not for myself. I want to give them the best."

More from Behind the Badge...

Published
By Glenn Price at the AXA Melwood Training Centre
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