'It was like I knew Klopp for 10 years' - Achterberg

Liverpool goalkeeping coach John Achterberg has discussed his 14-year stay at the club as he nears a summer exit alongside manager Jurgen Klopp.

The 52-year-old will depart with the club's current manager and his staff at the season's end.

In an exclusive chat with BBC Radio Merseyside, Achterberg said: "When the news broke about the boss you had a little time to think about what will be next. My contract will be running out so you have to look at different things. I didn't want to come to the end of the season and you come unstuck as you don't know what is happening.

"From that period I started being more active on the market if you like, to find out about different things."

Achterberg joined the Reds in 2009. Asked if he expected to be at the club so long, he said: "Of course not. It was my next step up. I was coaching at Tranmere, I did it in Holland, I had this passion to be a goalkeeper coach after I had played football. In 2009 I was 38 and probably could have continued as a player-coach for one or two years but got the offer to join Rafa Benitez. He offered me a contract to join them as reserve team goalkeeping coach and academy goalkeeper coach. He left and I made the step to the first team."

Achterberg, who played for NAC Breda, FC Eindhoven and Tranmere, was at the club when Klopp joined in 2015.

"The first time he came through the door it was like I knew him for 10 years the way he dealt with me and talked to me," Achterberg said of Klopp.

"I had a feeling this guy is special because of the way he did things and the authority he has with the players or the way he speaks to them."

Listen to Achterberg discuss Alisson, winning the European Cup and more here