When the time comes to look back over Jurgen Klopp’s Anfield reign in its entirety, there will be countless special characters and moments to be relived and celebrated.
There are obvious ones which will spring to the forefront of many peoples’s minds - the Liverpool manager taking his players to salute the Kop after Divock Origi’s 96th minute West Brom equaliser and Dejan Lovren’s stoppage time winner against Dortmund ; Sadio Mane’s early Christmas present at Goodison and Virgil van Dijk’s dream derby debut; the transformative signings of Alisson Becker and Fabinho in the wake of heartbreak in Kyiv, epic Barcelona second leg which brought redemption in Madrid, and late fightback at Aston Villa when many Reds just knew their relentless team was going to finally win the Premier League to name but a few.
There are also lesser heralded moments which proved significant in their own way such as Emre Can’s astonishing overhead kick at Watford which helped secure that first Champions League qualification, the 4-3 Anfield victory over Manchester City which proved to Klopp’s men they could hold their own against Pep Guardiola’s champions-elect, Daniel Sturridge’s late leveller at Chelsea which kept the Reds unbeaten until the following January to put them firmly in a title race for the first time and even Alisson’s amazing 95th minute headed winner at the Hawthorns which salvaged the wretched behind-closed-doors covid season.
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There is a strong case to say 2019 may well have been the greatest calendar year in Liverpool’s history, given the first half of it saw the Reds complete a 97-point league campaign which somehow wasn’t enough to win the title but still lift a sixth European Cup, and in the second half only two points dropped in the first 19 league games en route to finally ending the 30-year wait for the holy grail of a 19th championship while also grabbing the Super Cup and winning the World Club Cup for the first time in the club's history. It was built though on the foundations of a strong 2018 which began with a victory the manager was still waxing lyrical about months afterwards, earned by a stoppage time winner from a modest but reliable squad member of those early Klopp years.
Ragnar Klavan was only a few months short of his 31st birthday and may well have thought his chances of playing in the big time had passed him by when he signed for Liverpool in July 2016. The Estonian centre-back had kicked off his career in his homeland with Elva in 2001 at the age of 15 and gone on to win the league and domestic super cup with Tallinn-based Flora in 2003 before spending seven seasons in Holland’s top flight with Heracles and AZ Alkmaar, winning the Eredivisie title with the latter under Louis van Gaal in 2008/09 after joining on loan in January ahead of a permanent switch. He moved to Augsburg in Germany in 2012 and it was during his time with the Bundesliga side he first appeared on Liverpool’s radar.
The Fuggerstädters were Klopp’s first European knock-out opponents as Reds boss and only a James Milner penalty separated the sides in their tightly-fought last-32 Europa League tie, with Klavan performing admirably alongside his team-mates as Liverpool edged their way through to a last-16 match-up and first ever European encounter with bitter rivals Manchester United. The Reds would make it all the way to the final before losing to competition specialists Sevilla in Basel, also reaching the League Cup final where they were edged out on penalties by Manchester City at Wembley, a final league position of eighth highlighting the scale of the rebuilding job still facing the new manager ahead of his first summer transfer window and pre-season at Anfield.
The first stage of Klopp’s defensive reconstruction had already been put in place the previous February when it was announced Schalke’s soon to be out-of-contract 24-year-old Cameroonian centre-back Joel Matip would be arriving in the summer on a free transfer and in late July Liverpool agreed a £4.2m deal with Augsburg for Klavan to join him, even if when the Reds boss initially rang him the Estonian defender was sceptical over who was on the other end of the line and needed some persuasion it wasn’t a wind-up!
"Yes, I did not believe it”, he later admitted. “I asked for some kind of confirmation so Jurgen sent me a selfie! There were other options but once I heard of the opportunity to play for Liverpool, all others lost the shine. Turns out, they had been watching me for two years and Klopp knew me from the Bundesliga days and we had a nice talk. Feels like we clicked well. For me, the most important thing is the team effort and whatever needs to be done for the team. I’ve always been a team player and it will be the same until I retire.
“I’m really honoured to be part of this amazing club and amazing team. It's hard to put it into words because it's been a dream of mine for 22 years to come to the Premier League and be part of this amazing club, Liverpool. What excites me is the history, how many trophies they have won and then the kind of names that have been here in Melwood and at Anfield. That I can be part of this - I can't describe it - it's something special and I'm privileged to be here. Mart Poom was the first Estonian to play in the Premier League which is the home of football and he was a big idol for me when I was growing up. I followed him wherever he went so that's one of the reasons, but there is so much history at Anfield and this is what excites me more. It's not the newest stadium but it is the place to be.”
Klopp was also delighted to have got the man he wanted to bolster his defensive options, having been an admirer for some time of the Estonian’s performance in the Bundesliga. "At the end of last season I knew that if we decided to take somebody in this position he was the one I wanted”, the Liverpool boss said. “Now I'm really happy with the options we have got at centre back. I've seen up close for three seasons how good his performances in Germany have been and last season we got chance to see him against us - and a lot in preparation - for our games against Augsburg. The last time he played against us at Dortmund they had 10 men and he defended really well to help them get a clean sheet and a win. He will bring us really good qualities with his defensive intelligence and ability on the ball and he is a left-footed player so will give us extra balance. I know that he is not only a very good player but the type of mentality and person who is coming here to fight and to win. He has had chances to move to some very big clubs but showed loyalty to Augsburg and now we've beaten some big teams for him to come here. I think he has made a great decision!"
Klavan was one of a seven-strong summer influx as Liverpool, having finished 21 points behind surprise champions Leicester City but only six adrift of fourth-placed Manchester City, aimed for a return to the Champions League having only played one season in Europe’s premier cup competition since 2009, with Southampton forward Sadio Mane arriving for £30m alongside midfielders Gini Wijnaldum (£25m from Newcastle) and Marko Grujic (£5.1m from Red Star Belgrade), and goalkeepers Loris Karius (£4.7m for Klopp’s old club Mainz 05) and Alex Manninger (on a free from Augsburg).
With Matip injured for the season opener away to Arsenal, Klavan made his Liverpool debut alongside Dejan Lovren at the Emirates as Klopp’s men got their campaign underway with a thrilling 4-3 victory, all the Reds’ goals coming after falling behind within an 18-minute period either side of half-time before the Gunners pulled a couple back. A frustrating defeat at newly-promoted Burnley the following weekend however, when Liverpool had 81 percent of the possession over the 90 minutes and registered 25 shots on goal as opposed to the host’s two, showed patience would be required before the consistency the new manager was preaching could be achieved and, with Matip now fit, the Cameroonian was given the chance to forge a partnership with Lovren.
Klavan’s next involvement was a start in the League Cup third round tie at Derby County and the Estonian opened the scoring midway through the first half when he prodded home from close range following a Philippe Coutinho corner to help set up a 3-0 win, keeping his place for the following weekend’s 5-1 home victory over Hull City, but thereafter having to make do with starts only in the League Cup until early December as Lovren and Matip began to develop an understanding, a 6-1 victory over Watford in early November putting Liverpool top of the Premier league for the first time since the ill-fated 2014 title run-in.
A harum-scarum 4-3 defeat at Bournemouth in a match the Reds had twice led by two goals showed defensive frailties still remained and injury to Matip soon afterwards gave Klavan a run of five successive starts in the side with the hectic festive programme approaching. He stepped in to good effect with Klopp’s men recording four successive victories - the Estonian putting in a man-of-the-match performance in the Goodison derby won deep into stoppage time by Sadio Mane’s poacher’s strike - and even getting some supporters dreaming of a new year title push when Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City were beaten at Anfield on New Year’s Eve.
An unsatisfactory 2-2 draw at relegation-threatened Sunderland two days later injected a touch of realism into such aspirations with an exchange in the Stadium of Light dressing room after the match revealed by Klavan indicating the fierce will to win within the squad which was still frustratingly a work in progress.
“The biggest pressure was around Christmas and at the beginning of January”, the Estonian recalled. “One time, I don’t remember who we played against. Maybe it was against Sunderland away. Klopp and James Milner almost started a physical fight. It was the period when there was Boxing Day in England and they almost started fighting but eventually Milner stepped back. We saw from his eyes that Klopp would have gone all the way just to prove his point. It was the most stressful time for him as well. He was under a lot of pressure. It was my first and Klopp’s second year. What are you going to do? You’re supposed to be a good coach. You are Jurgen Klopp who will make superstars of all players. The pressure started getting to him. It’s not supposed to be easy, but if you don’t deliver against a team like Sunderland, then you can forget about the places you had hoped for.”
Klopp would deny he and Milner almost came to blows, saying “It looked quite aggressive without being that aggressive. Maybe Ragnar was just not used to that yet. James Milner would never do that, I would never do that, it definitely must be a massive misunderstanding” but the draw on Wearside proved a portent for the new year struggles Liverpool would endure. Sadio Mane’s departure on African Nations Cup duty illustrated how much Klopp’s men had been relying in the Senegalese forward and the Reds would win only one league game before the beginning of March, also being knocked out of the League and FA Cups at home.
An abject defeat at deposed champions Leicester, who - lying only a point above the relegation placings - had just sacked title-winning manager Claudio Ranieri, dropped Liverpool to fifth and put the main pre-season objective of Champions League qualification in some peril but three more starts for Klavan at the start of March in home victories over Arsenal and Burnley and a respectable draw at the Etihad helped steady the ship ahead of the run-in. The Estonian would only feature twice more from the start before the end of the campaign but the second of them was the first of four testing away games in the final month the Reds would face without injured talisman Mane at Stoke City, West Brom, Watford and West Ham, all of which were won, and victory over already-relegated Middlesbrough on the final day ensured the fourth place finish Klopp’s men deserved for a season of progress and enabled the manager to plan the next stage of his Anfield evolution with Champions League football on the horizon.
Key to that was continuing to address the issue of the Reds’ fallibilities at the back which had been highlighted again by the side’s new year travails and Southampton’s giant Dutch centre-half Virgil van Dijk was identified as the man Klopp wanted as his defensive totem. However Anfield officials were forced to issue an embarrassing apology to the Saints and publicly end their interest in the £50m-rated defender after the Saints reported Liverpool to the Premier League after what they considered to be an illegal approach.
Klopp was able to bolster his backline by bringing in £10m Scottish left-back Andy Robertson from Hull City but a chaotic 3-3 draw at newly-promoted Watford - with new £43m Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah scoring on his debut - only reopened endless media debates about Liverpool’s defensive fragility and the danger of it continuing to compromise the progress made elsewhere. Klavan was in the side the following weekend as Crystal Palace were beaten 1-0 at Anfield and also starting the 5-0 defeat at Manchester City and home draw with Burnley the following month before having to settle for a largely watching brief as the manager persevered with the Lovren-Matip partnership.
The Croatian’s horror-show in the October 4-1 defeat to Tottenham at Wembley saw the Estonian start 14 of the next 16 matches before the turn of the year as Salah’s extraordinary scoring - the Egyptian’s brace in the 30th December home win over Leicester taking his tally to 23 in just half a season - gave hint to what the former Roma man was capable of. But the glaring lack of true defensive leader, thrown sharply into focus with 3-3 draws at Sevilla and Arsenal when winning positions were carelessly frittered away, was still painfully evident and Liverpudlians got the late Christmas present they dreamed of when it was announced the day after Boxing Day that a £75m deal had finally been agreed with Southampton and Virgil van Dijk would after all be moving to Anfield once the January transfer window began.
The big Dutchman would not be registered in time for the New Year’s Day trip to Burnley and it was Klavan who partnered Dejan Lovren as Klopp’s men returned to the scene of one of their most infuriating defeats the season before. After a goalless first half played out in typically wild winter weather conditions in east Lancashire, Sadio Mane gave the Reds the lead just after the hour mark after spinning on the edge of the box to rifle a superb left-footed drive high into the net but an 87th minute Johann Berg Gudmundsson equaliser after the visitors defence allowed a Charlie Taylor cross to reach the Icelander at the far post threatened another unsatisfactory start to the new year.
That was until the final of the four minutes of added time when, with the visitors having won a free-kick in a central position inside the Burnley half, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain lofted the ball towards Dejan Lovren and the Croat’s intelligent angled back-header across the face of goal was bundled in at the far post by his central defensive partner Klavan for only his second Liverpool goal and a dramatic stoppage-time winner, sparking wild celebrations in front of the jubilant travelling Kop in what proved a fitting conclusion to the final game of the pre-Van Dijk era.
“Is it true that it is my goal? Oh good. It was on the line so I wasn’t sure”, the self-effacing Estonian asked the press afterwards and Klopp was delighted with character shown by his players in refusing to accept the late setback, saying “Maybe we didn’t have too many of these wins. In all the draws we have had this season (eight), we would have pretty much deserved to win. We need the wins on the not sunny days. It was a fantastic moment when we scored.”
Van Dijk would make a dream debut four days later, scoring a late Kop end winner to knock Everton out of the FA Cup and almost immediately became the defensive lynchpin Liverpool had been missing for so long, Klopp’s men avoiding the kind of new year slump which had been so damaging twelve months earlier, securing Champions League qualification for the following season with another fourth place finish while surprising many observers with an exhilarating run all the way to the final of that season’s competition before unfortunate defeat to serial winners Real Madrid in Kyiv.
The wild New Year’s Day at Turf Moor had left a real impression on the Liverpool manager though and, over six months later on the club’s pre-season tour of America, he admitted to The Anfield Wrap how much he loved seeing his team come through times of adversity like that and that it had been HIS day. “Being ready for our football and being ready for a big fight, that’s what I’m about”, Klopp said. “I like it when it’s like that. That Burnley game away.. that was my game. First of January, you thought ‘why are we here?’, it was raining, windy, everything.. we are one nil up then the Iceland guy equalises and then Ragnar Klavan.. I was completely.. that was MY day! S*** weather but it was great and these are the games you do not forget in a season like that, you might think ‘Burnley? How many times have we played here 94 minutes.. free kick.. Dejan Lovren.. I could draw a picture of it! It was great.”
Klavan would make only three more starts for Liverpool after his Burnley winner in late-season league games as focus turned towards the Champions League knock-outs and that summer he signed for Serie A side Cagliari in a £2m deal to see his two-year spell at Anfield which saw him make 53 appearances come to an end, returning to his home country after three years in Italy and 17 playing abroad to help Paide Linnameeskond win the Estonian Cup - the first trophy in their history - in June 2022.
Given what Liverpool have gone on to achieve since Klavan’s short spell on Merseyside, his contribution likely amounts to a mere footnote in the eyes of many but the man whose reliability and professionalism in the back-up role he was largely asked to fulfil saw Jurgen Klopp describe him as a ‘role model ’ also became something of a cult figure on the Kop thanks to his comedy ‘Zoolander’ turns. The respect the Reds boss had for the Estonian was very much mutual with Klavan revealing after his departure he would have been initially content to stay at Anfield even in a bit-part role and detailing what made Klopp stand out in comparison to other coaches he had worked under.
“I honestly did not intend to leave Liverpool. I had received several offers from other European clubs, but it was not my intention to change clubs. But then Cagliari's offer came and I had little doubt. I could measure myself in an important league like Serie A, which is a bit like the university of tactics.
“With Klopp, what I didn’t have with other coaches in team meetings is he never repeated himself. He always talked from a different angle or there was a slight joke in it. He sensed the player and the team so well. He knew when to say what. If he saw there were problems in the team, he could turn it around with a simple joke or vice versa, when the team didn’t take it too seriously, then he showed them who’s boss. That, for me, is his phenomenon. That he can read the team so well, and individually as well.”
