Klopp explains Taffarel arrival and reveals Achterberg contract extension
Jürgen Klopp has explained how Claudio Taffarel’s appointment will benefit Liverpool’s goalkeeping department while revealing that John Achterberg has renewed his contract with the club.
It was announced on Tuesday that Taffarel, a World Cup winner with Brazil in 1994, has joined the Reds’ first-team coaching set-up, where he will work alongside Achterberg and Jack Robinson.
Klopp detailed the reasons for Taffarel’s arrival during his press conference on Friday and also announced that Achterberg has signed a new deal until 2024.
“Taffa! Really good guy. I had for a while already the idea when I saw all our extremely talented goalkeepers,” the boss said.
“In all age groups we really think we have an outstanding bunch of players there, starting of course with Ali but then Caoimhin [Kelleher], then Marcelo [Pitaluga], then Harvey [Davies], Vit [Jaros] was brilliant in Ireland, he’s doing well, and we have a lot of games so that means we are constantly on the road, in hotels, stuff like this.
“So we wanted a real solution for these boys, not only for these boys but for these boys as well, and we want to create our own goalkeeping philosophy actually.
“For that we thought it makes sense to mix it up with a coach who was a world-class player, obviously, and works in the moment together with two of the best goalies in the world: Ederson and Alisson [in his role with the Brazil national team].
“So we spoke to Ali and he was quite pleased about that, then we spoke to Taffa and he loved the idea as well [and] here we go. It’s really good and exciting. He is a brilliant guy and he’s older than me, which is important because I was the oldest in the coaching staff!
“John Achterberg renewed his contract, by the way, until 2024. Because people very often make the wrong conclusions because of some things. John is the head of the goalie department and Taffa is a wonderful add on to that.”