‘That’s what I tried to say’ – Liverpool coach reveals he asked club to sign 3 world-class stars

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Liverpool’s Head of Goalkeeping John Achterberg has revealed to us that he recommended three of the world’s best goalkeepers to his bosses at Liverpool between 2011 and 2014 but for whatever reason, The Reds either couldn’t, or didn’t, make a move for any of them.
 
During our exclusive interview ‘In Conversation With John Achterberg’ – which is now streaming live HERE, the current Reds’ Head of Goalkeeping told Paul Machin how he had recommended three goalkeepers, Marc-André ter Stegen, Manuel Neuer and Samir Handanovic, to his seniors as Liverpool continued to search for a new ‘keeper.
 
He said:

“I recommended Ter Stegen when Brendan [Rodgers] was here, he was at ‘Gladbach and I told Brendan about him. So, a few weeks later Brendan came to me and said ‘I got a call of Chris Houghton and he says this goalie playing for ‘Gladbach is a good goalie’ So I said ‘yeah, that’s what I tried to say to you!’ but then of course, he goes Barca.”

This happened a few years after Achterberg had spoken with Damien Comolli about two other excellent goalkeepers who he thought The Reds should be looking to sign.

“I said [to Comolli] ‘I did see two really good goalies I like’. One was Neuer, he was with Schalke then and the other one was Handanovic. So he said ‘Neuer is going to Bayern, that is already done’ but obviously I didn’t have this information when I told him. Handanovic was at Udinese but obviously Comolli didn’t do much with my suggestion and then he got sold to Inter Milan so yeah, that’s how it works sometimes.”

Redmen Reacts

One thing to take away from this story is that John Achterberg has a really good eye for a good goalkeeper. He had eyes on Alisson Becker for years before he became a Red, and he recommended three outstanding ‘keepers in Ter Stegen, Neuer and Handanovic.
 
It’s impossible to know for sure how either of those three would have adapted to life with Liverpool had they joined, but it seems  pretty safe bet that they’d have done a lot, lot better than Simon Mignolet and Loris Karius, the two goalkeepers The Reds had before they ultimately decided to splash the cash on Alisson.

Hopefully Liverpool don’t need to bring in a new goalkeeper for a long, long time but if they ever do, it seems like they really should take the advice of Achterberg when it comes to recruiting any future number one.


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