Jan’s delight seeing Mane sprint to top
THE race for the top is a marathon, not a sprint – unless you’re Sadio Mane. That’s the view of former Everton, Southampton and Holland fitness coach Jan Kluitenberg (left).
The Dutchman spent more than a year at St Mary’s working with Senegal forward Mane and Virgil van Dijk before moving to Everton with manager Ronald Koeman. He’s seen first hand the incredible steps both players have undertaken to be the very best.
Kluitenberg said: “Before the game, Sadio came to me the first time and said, ‘Jan, I want to do six sprints of 60 metres’.
“I said, ‘Sadio, we trained the whole week. You need to be ready for tomorrow, so we don’t do it’.
“He said, ‘Well if you won’t help me, I will do it by myself!’
“I explained to Ronald Koeman, ‘Sadio wants to do some sprint exercises before the game tomorrow’. He said, ‘Jan, Sadio knows his body so control him in the things he wants to do’.
“I took some steps, but not 60 metres! But the sprints the day before the game was for him something special to prepare his body.
“It was great to work with him. A good guy, really good professional and also a good heart.”
Mane’s relentless drive for perfection is closely matched by Van Dijk, who Kluitenberg also worked alongside at Southampton and then later for the Dutch national team.
He added: “We had to push Virgil sometimes. There were moments when Ronald was really critical, but the reason was always to help him make the step up as a defender and for his career.
“And he grew as a person, as a leader, and I think the steps he made at Liverpool, working with players on a really high level, gave him more experience.” Kluitenberg has also enjoyed seeing the development of homegrown players from his time at Everton, including England international Dominic Calvert-Lewin. “He’s a great performer,” said the former Toffees coach. “He’s a real No.9, strong with duels and with his headers, so I think he deserves to be part of the national team.” Kluitenberg will be keeping tabs on today’s Anfield encounter from a distance in Abu Dhabi, where he is now head of conditioning at Al Jazira, but he still remembers the brutal nature in which Koeman’s 16-month spell as Everton manager ended in October 2017. “We came in and the chairman came in,” he said. “Erwin (Ronald’s brother) said, ‘Jan, there will be a special message for us’. But Ronald was only two minutes in his office. “That was a very big disappointment, especially for Ronald, because he’d put a lot of effort in at the club.”