Interview'It was like I'd known Jürgen already for 10 years'

It happened seven years ago today, with the new Liverpool manager, Jürgen Klopp.

He knew it was coming, of course. The long-serving Reds goalkeeping coach – who, alongside Pepijn Lijnders, would provide continuity in the crossover of coaching staff – was privy to the fact the former Borussia Dortmund boss was set to be installed at Anfield on October 8, 2015.

It was the ease and familiarity with which that introductory chat with Klopp unfolded that offered the surprise – and a positive starting point for so many highs to come.

“The boss was talking straight away to me basically like you’ve known him already for 10 years, the way he speaks to you. We got on well. We talked about how it is and how it works a little bit and all that stuff, and tried to help in that way,” Achterberg tells Liverpoolfc.com of that first meeting.

“Obviously you heard about things and saw what he had produced with Dortmund, getting to Champions League finals and stuff like that, winning the league in Germany. He played a gegenpressing idea and a hard-working team. That looked all positive.

“We played them in pre-season [in 2014]. We shook each other’s hand without knowing anything would happen. In that pre-season game we won 4-0 but I believe they had heavy training before the game so they were not fresh, as you could see in the game.”

Following lengthy spells in the dugouts of first FSV Mainz 05 and then Dortmund in his home country – the latter featuring two Bundesliga title wins, a German cup and a Champions League final – Klopp cut short a sabbatical when the Liverpool job offer arrived.

With the 2015-16 campaign already two months old and the Reds facing a demanding three-games-a-week schedule, time to implement his ideas was at a premium.

Off the pitch, he set about forging “a kind of family and togetherness: that we all work for the same idea, to try to win something together” as Achterberg recalls.

Steady progress was soon achieved on the field, too, and the season would develop in bittersweet fashion as Klopp’s impact was reflected in the team reaching two cup finals.

Both were to end in disappointment, however, as Manchester City edged the League Cup on penalties and Sevilla proved too strong in the Europa League showpiece in Basel.

Wheels were, though, undoubtedly in motion.

“First of all, they tried to make a good organisation, training base, defensively for the team shape where we could play from a good, compact organisation and then start with the counter. That’s the first thing he tried to do: organise the team, being hard to beat and then obviously using the speed up front,” explains Achterberg.

“The first game, we played Tottenham, drew 0-0 and Simon [Mignolet] made quite a few saves as well. We had some chances on the break as well but I think that first game was probably a fair result.

“From that, obviously he tried to implement the pressing all the time and what players needed to do individually and as a group, and obviously kicked on from there. We kicked on and did well. We got to the League Cup final and to the Europa League final in the first year.

“He said, we will get to more finals, obviously we were not successful to win one of them but we will get to more finals and we will win some as well. Basically saying, you need to lose them as well to use the experience for the next time to win them.”

Klopp’s words would prove to be prophetic as those early foundations were built upon ever more strongly in the years that followed.

A return to Champions League football and a heartbreaking near-miss in 2018’s final preceded Liverpool’s evolution into English, European and world champions, with their success secured via an exhilarating brand of attacking football paired with the power of the fanbase.

After European Cup glory was clinched in Madrid in 2019 came the UEFA Super Cup, a first ever FIFA Club World Cup and then the holy grail: the Premier League title, lifted courtesy of a club-record 99 points.

Last term, the Reds added the Carabao Cup and Emirates FA Cup to their honours list while mounting an incredible challenge for a quadruple.

“If you work for Liverpool your main target is to win games. You know before you start that Liverpool is one of the best clubs in the world and one of the biggest,” details Achterberg.

“You know every game is pressure because you have to win every game. That’s how it feels and that’s how it is, in my opinion. You expect to win trophies as one of them.

“The boss obviously made it happen with getting the right players in and making the right structure and making the team and the coaching team as it is. That’s all credit for the boss, to be honest. You can have good players but that doesn’t make a good team and doesn’t make everyone work together.”

The close-knit coaching team that embarked on the journey in 2015 has developed and grown over the years, too, with the likes of Jack Robinson and Claudio Taffarel joining Achterberg’s goalkeeping department, for example.

And the style of Klopp’s man-management with the squad is mirrored in their working relationships and has served similar inspiration.

“He is very honest and open and obviously if he is not happy with something he will tell everyone,” says Achterberg.

“It’s the same as he says to the players: I can be your mate but never be your best mate, because I have to make decisions. I love you all and we need you all but we can only play 11, but you’re all needed to be successful.

“I think that’s one of his good strengths, that he tries to create a team and always defends his team and tries to help the team and be honest with them. That’s what you have to be, you have to be honest with the players and tell them how you see it and feel it.”

So, could Achterberg pick out a favourite moment of the seven years since that very first conversation with Klopp?

“There’s quite a few, there’s too many, to be honest,” the Dutchman replies. “We had a lot of good situations. [The 2019 Champions League semi-final against] Barcelona was good, winning the Champions League final, any cup you win is great because you want to win everything. The togetherness is great.

“There’s too many positive things. He changed the whole way of the supporters, he brought the enjoyment back for the supporters, he made the supporters stay until the last second of the game, the whole club going in a positive style on the way up. That is all what he made happen.”

He finishes: “And hopefully many more to come. That’s what we try to achieve and hopefully we can make that happen. That is the plan.”