Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool has been very busy this summer as they signed players like Loris Karius, Joel Matip and Sadio Mane. Their recent acquisition, a 31-year-old defender by the name of Ragnar Klavan, however, is not by any means a flashy name. The Player moved to Liverpool from Augsburg for a fee of £4.2m. Klavan is the second defender Klopp has signed in this window and the 31-year-old is brought in purely with a view to providing cover as a replacement for the departed Kolo Toure.
For those who don’t know much about the player would not be too bothered about his squad status but Klavan is not an ordinary player by any means. The 2014/15 season was a memorable one for Bundesliga outfit Augsburg as they achieved their best ever finish capturing the 5th place and qualifying for the Europa League. Klavan was one of the most consistent performers of the squad which finished 8th the previous year and 5th the next, the club’s best ever run in top flight football.
Klavan is the three times Estonian Player Of The Year (2013, 2014, 2015) and is a very dependable defender who offers versatility as well. The 31-year-old primarily plays as a Center Back but won’t look out of place at all if he is asked to fill in the Left Back spot. Having a center back with the discipline of the former Augsburg man is an absolute asset and with Martin Skrtel gone now, Ragnar Klavan’s discipline would surprise the fans at Anfield. The 6ft 1-inch defender was shown just two yellow cards in the whole of last season and it goes to show that more often than not, he is decisive in his defensive actions.
With Skrtel and Toure now gone and Gomez, Sakho and new boy Joel Matip, out with injuries, Klavan would get his chances to show his talent in the first few months. A player who likes to make decisive blocks by putting his body on the line would draw huge cheers from the Kop end for sure. While he has already gathered some fanfare based on the fact that he rejected a move to Everton last season, Ragnar Klavan can very well turn out to be the player, who ends up playing consistently for Liverpool as he looks to live and fulfill his long-awaited dream of playing in the Premier League.
This article is written by Arka Tarun Mukherjee.
