Klavan: The coaching we get at Melwood is 'perfect'
The work that goes in at Melwood on a daily basis makes it easy for players to slot into the Liverpool team when needed, says Ragnar Klavan.
The centre-back has made six appearances for the Reds this season following his summer move from Augsburg, and popped up with a rare goal in the 3-0 EFL Cup victory at Derby County in September.
Estonia’s captain has not started a Premier League game since Liverpool’s resounding 5-1 win over Hull City four days after that match at the iPro Stadium, with Dejan Lovren and Joel Matip having formed an impressive partnership at the heart of Jürgen Klopp’s defence.
But Klavan feels that every member of the squad is always ready to play thanks to the quality of coaching they receive in training.
“Dejan and Joel are both really good centre-halves and at this level there is not much difference when you analyse if one is better with another,” the 31-year-old explains in the new edition of the official Liverpool FC magazine.
“Everybody at Liverpool is at the highest level and we are being coached by perfect coaching staff to play the way we want to play. It makes it a lot easier for everyone to jump into the team no matter which position you are talking about.
“Sometimes it is effortless the way players slot in here. They can play so well straight away and this is because of how we do things in training.
“Even if you are not going to be in the starting XI one week, you will still get the same coaching, the same ideas, and work on the same movements.
“The amount of games we have in a season, even without being in Europe this year, is a lot and at some points you play every two or three days here.
“So I think for the team it is really good to have a fluid system that means players can easily come in and out when the manager needs them to.”
Klavan lined up against Klopp’s Liverpool team in last season’s Europa League, but admits that it has taken time for him to adjust to the daily demands of playing for the German.
“Of course, I knew a little bit about how they played under him, but I didn’t know the detail behind it,” he continues.
“We are working on detail behind it. We are working on detail all the time here and it takes time to get used to this.
“I have never played this kind of style - I was used to different styles of football - so it was important we had a really good pre-season. We worked a lot in the summer.
“For me, I feel really lucky to be here every day playing for him and learning something new.”
The December 2016 edition of the official Liverpool FC magazine, which also features interviews with Jordan Henderson and Peter Krawietz, is available to buy now.
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