Liverpool coach Arne Slot
Image Credits: Getty Images
Liverpool’s coaching setup has undergone a significant shake-up ahead of the 2025-26 season.
Assistant coach John Heitinga left Anfield to take charge of Ajax last month, ending his one-year spell that helped deliver the club’s Premier League title.
As a replacement, the Reds have secured former Netherlands captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst in the assistant coach role.
Van Bronckhorst arrives with a glittering resume, having won domestic titles with Feyenoord (2016-17 Eredivisie, two KNVB Beker trophies), led Rangers to a Scottish Cup triumph and Europa League final, and most recently managed Besiktas until late 2024.
And in yet more of a shake-up, the club has confirmed that two goalkeeping coaches in Fabian Otte and Claudio Taffarel have both departed.
Claudio Taffarel and Fabian Otte with the 2024/25 Liverpool goalkeeping ranks. Image Credits: LFC
German coach Otte joined Liverpool only last summer, bringing experience from the USA national team, Burnley and Borussia Mönchengladbach as head of first-team goalkeeper coaching.
Otte was highly-rated when he arrived, and perhaps more information will come out in the coming days as to why his stint was so short.
Meanwhile, Taffarel, a Brazilian World Cup winner, had been at the AXA Training Centre since 2021—first under Jürgen Klopp and then Arne Slot.
Taffarel has been a big part of Alisson’s development at Anfield over the past few years, and his departure comes as big loss for the Reds shot-stopper.
Speaking after his supernatural performance vs PSG in the first leg of Liverpool’s Round of 16 clash earlier this year, the Brazilin said on his compatriot:
“Taffarel makes me maintain this high level since he came to Liverpool, it was with the goal of I had already won the Champion League, we’d beaten Premier League champions, and we would’ve been winning the [Club] World Cup, but in my mind I knew that I could improve,” Alisson said.
“So, I worked for Taffarel in our national team, that helped me a lot technically, so I thought it would be a great thing for me to have him here daily working daily and he brought a lot more for me in these last few years three or four we’ve been together only in Liverpool”
“There’s also the time of our national team which is very important, he’s an important guy, but inside and outside [of football] we talk.”
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