'Why Bogdan competition will inspire Mignolet'

The arrival of Adam Bogdan from Bolton Wanderers has brought renewed competition for a place between the posts, and the Belgian is keen to maintain his high standards and consistency.

Achterberg told Liverpoolfc.com: “For every goalkeeper, competition is good. As a goalkeeper you always have to look at your own game and try to play well.

“The competition pushes you that little bit harder, but sometimes you push yourself to the limit because you always know there is someone waiting behind you, so you just always have to focus on your individual job and do everything right and try to improve.

“Simon has been working hard where he left off last season. He has been working hard over the summer as well, which is good, and you could see that back in training.”

Read on for much more from our in-depth Melwood chat with the goalkeeping coach ahead of Monday's clash with Bournemouth.

Was that the start to the season we’ve been hoping for since the fixtures came out in June?

Of course. We owed them something really so it was good to get the first game to try to put it right.

Did we see a different side to Liverpool’s qualities on the day? How important will that ability to grind a result out prove?

Stoke is a very tough place to go and not many teams get a result there. You know you need to play a certain way, you need to have fight in the team and good organisation and balance and don’t be too open. That’s what we did and we ground out the result and won the game.

How important was it to ‘put to bed’ what happened there on the final day of last season?

Of course. That should never happen to any team who plays for Liverpool. Everyone was devastated by what happened, and at least now we have put it right for all our supporters and also for ourselves.

How much confidence can the players take from that result? Starting with a win really sets the tone, doesn’t it?

You always need to get off to a good start at the start of the season to set the tone really. We did that two years ago and hopefully we can do that again this year and carry on what we did two years ago. We have been working hard to make sure we got off to a good start.

A clean sheet, too – you must have been pleased with that?

Yes, of course, that’s what our job is really as a goalkeeper and a goalkeeper coach. We try to plan the right sessions to improve everything and try to keep clean sheets.

We obviously added a new goalkeeper to the ranks in the summer. How has Adam Bogdan settled in so far?

It’s good that Adam has come in and he has had to step up the pace a little bit from Bolton. We have been working on a few different things and I have discussed with him what we can improve. He is a positive boy who wants to improve.

What are his strengths?

He’s a positive boy who wants to work hard. He is positive on his starting position and he likes to come for crosses. He’s a decent shot-stopper.

How beneficial will the competition he’ll provide to Simon Mignolet be?

For every goalkeeper, competition is good. As a goalkeeper you always have to look at your own game and try to play well. The competition pushes you that little bit harder but sometimes you push yourself to the limit because you always know there is someone waiting behind you, so you just always have to focus on your individual job and do everything right and try to improve.

It was a good start to the season for Simon, wasn’t it? He had a solid game at Stoke…

Simon has been working hard where he left off last season. He has been working hard over the summer, which is good, and you could see that back in training. The games he has played in pre-season he hasn’t been overly tested but what he had to do, he did alright. He has carried that on in training and we are still working on improvements like normal, so it’s going well.

With Christian Benteke in the team, there was a chance for Simon to mix up his distribution – is that something you’ve been working on?

Yes, we already did that last season really, but obviously with Christian coming in he is pretty good at holding the ball up and winning headers. He can also actually play quite a bit and he is better than what people will think with the ball at his feet as well. I think it’s a positive signing and it also gives us an outlet as a defender and goalkeeper. If there are no short passes on, they can look to him as an outlet and then play off him in the final third.

Elsewhere, Danny Ward’s had some great reviews at Aberdeen - are you keeping an eye on him?

Yes, I’m constantly in touch with their goalkeeping coach and Danny. I watch his games back and then discuss how it’s been going with him. We also have Danny come back to Melwood every month to monitor his strength and his physical condition. Danny is a very talented goalkeeper. He has got some positive reviews and he is one of the best young goalkeepers in the country. It’s up to him to keep progressing at Aberdeen and keep pushing himself and stay in the right frame and progress. He is in the Wales full national team squad and there’s every chance he will make his debut sooner rather than later for them.

How much is he enjoying it at Aberdeen and how much benefit will he take from it?

Danny is really enjoying it. As a goalkeeper I thought he was ready last season to go out on loan earlier, but we needed three goalkeepers here so he has had to be patient. Towards the end of last season he got a few games on loan at Morecambe and that was a big learning curve for him. He can keep kicking on.

Bournemouth on Monday – they will be desperate to make an impact in this league and Anfield can be an inspiring place. They’ll have nothing to lose…

They are a good footballing side and they have a lot of speed in their team. For us, we have to try to find a way of beating them so we have been working on that in training this week to be ready for the game on Monday night.

How impressed are you with what Bournemouth have achieved? League Two to the Premier League in just a few short years…

It’s amazing what they have achieved. They got back-to-back promotions and all credit to them. We will treat them with respect because they didn’t get promoted out of nothing. I think they are a decent team and we have played them twice in the cups in recent years and it wasn’t easy, so we will be prepared and know we have to be at our game 100 per cent.

They’ve got two very experienced goalkeepers in Boruc and Federici – it looks like Boruc has won the battle there, how highly do you rate him?

Boruc is good at what he does. He is a good shot-stopper, he strikes a decent ball and he has good presence. He has had a good career so it’s up to us to try to test him on Monday.

Finally, how excited are you for the first game at Anfield, and how important will the crowd be?

Our crowd has always been good home and away, so we have to try to entertain them and try to win the game and make everyone happy. That’s our job because when you play for Liverpool you have to try to win every game.

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