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Agent Alisson aids major Liverpool coup with legendary Brazilian signed

Alisson Becker played his part in helping Liverpool to secure an impressive coup for Brazilian legend Claudio Taffarel who will compliment their coaching ranks.

The Brazilian goalkeeper, 29, has been worth every penny of the £66.8m Liverpool paid Roma for his services in 2018. However, it appears Alisson’s impact at Liverpool has branched out further than just on the pitch.

According to multiple sources including the Athletic, Liverpool have added legendary Brazilian goalkeeper Claudio Taffarel to their coaching staff.

Taffarel won over 100 caps for his country as a player and was first choice between the sticks when Brazil lifted the 1994 World Cup.

Taffarel has worked as a goalkeeping coach for Brazil in recent years. He has held that position since 2014.

During that time, the Athletic claimed he struck up a close relationship with Alisson. And according to Goal’s Neil Jones, the current Liverpool stopper personally recommended Taffarel to the Reds.

Taffarel will work alongside current goalkeeping coaches John Achterberg and Jack Robinson, rather than replace either of the pair.

Jones stated he will combine his duties with his Brazil role as the Selecao seek to lift their sixth World Cup in Qatar in 2022.

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Klopp rates Van Dijk’s return from injury hell

Meanwhile, Klopp has hailed Virgil van Dijk’s comeback from a knee injury suffered away at Everton last season as “absolutely brilliant.”

Klopp said of the psychology of the return trip to Everton for the defender: “We are human beings, so it’s probably difficult to ignore something like that. But the situation was now not that it can always happen in football, it’s that it should not happen in football.

“Virgil is very experienced and he has these kind of situations constantly since he is back. He’s in challenges where he has to be completely free of all these things in his mind because of one issue in the past.”

As for his 16 games back in Liverpool’s defence, Klopp added: “Virgil came back brilliantly. People are really quick [to spot] when something is not like it was before.

“These kinds of judgements are not right, they make absolutely no sense because everybody needs time to get back. But he had a full pre-season which is absolutely helpful and since then we had to learn to deal with it.

“The third game in a week, he looked fine, but he needed maybe this little break which we gave him last week. I’m not sure we need to give him that still for the next few games, but at least we have it in our mind.

“His comeback has been absolutely brilliant. Some things are not exactly like they have been, it’s only a matter of time when they will be because of his quality. There’s no doubt about that.”

READ MORE: Fighting talk from Benitez as boss explains how Everton can ‘put things right’ against Liverpool

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