MP: Hello Ragnar
RK: Hello

00:08
MP: Firstly I would ask how has the second season gone/started?
RK: Second season has been up and down, just how it usually goes in Liverpool(laughing)

00:17
MP: But if you compare your second season with the first season, is it a little easier, harder? Preparation period?
RK: It might be even easier, because for me it was a big difference to go from the Bundesliga to  the Premier League, like to become accustomed to what is allowed there at all, which to me the greatest difference was that what the judges were allowed to in Premier League, it took some time to get used to it, but I think it was harder for me to adapt to the first few months than it is now on the second season.

00:55
MP: And how else can you compare Germany and England? What is the most unusual thing outside the football field? It it the left-hand traffic or that the hot and cold water tap is separate?
RK: Actually yes, it’s kind of mystical that warm and cold taps are separated and even in older houses they don’t run together at all, that is such a mysterious thing. About driving the vehicle in the beginning, well I pushed it back, just ordered a taxi to the club but one day I had enough and took a rent car and started driving. And if you’re already behind the wheels it isn’t that crazy, it’s worse in your head for some reason. I don’t know, how was the experience for yourself?
MP:It was relatively easy, there is a one good rule that applies everywhere, that the driver is always on the middle of the road and in England these roads are quite well marked. But I know that Derby County F.C Captain, Igor Štimac, Croatian, had an accident on his first drive and he made a wrong turn. Roundabouts are where you have to think differently but you get used to it.
RK:I have also had to change the left sided front tire twice, because it was difficult to see the corners. My Wife had to do it once but it just takes a little while but otherwise it was okay.

02:28
MP: Okay, have you tried Fish & Chips?
RK: I have, but it’s not really for me. The chips are really big in there and it doesn’t taste good for me.

02:43
MP: Since we came to the diet, do you have any specific rules in Liverpool? People are definitely interested in how much and what you can eat. How is it in one of the world’s top clubs?
RK: There are no strict rules, it is laid down on what you can eat. There’s a healthy buffet and there’s everything you can eat, no matter what you take from there. But these days it’s changed a lot if I compare it to when I started in Norway, Netherlands, things were different there. I can’t imagine how it was for you when you went to England? When you went to Portsmouth or Derby County?
MP: Portsmouth didn’t offer us anything. After the workout everyone had to look out for themselves in where you eat and what you eat. Portsmouth was so long ago, back then in 1994, I remember when we went for an away game, we carried boxes of beer on to the team bus. In Derby County we had lunch but there was no quality and the selection wasn’t the best. You’d get chicken daily, then there was baked beans which they like to eat and pasta. In Sunderland it went better and Arsenal would be comparable to Liverpool. It was very plentiful and a healthy choice all done on the spot. Salads, soups, several stakes, fish and chicken - all made of high quality nutrients. I know that now even in the Arsenal, there is a nutritionist advising players. Younger players who do not have a family there can bring food from the fitness center or the nutritionist teaches them how to cook.
RK: Likewise, last season we got our nutrition specialist from München Bayern and after that everything changed. Food that the younger people may eat, programs what you can and can’t eat. Maybe it is a bit too much but maybe it isn’t. Now we get yogurt and bread that’s made on the spot in the kitchen. Its very professional in that sense. Trying to minimize the amount of raw material purchased from the store. Who can be really bothered make yogurt, but they do the same with bread making. They try to make as much as possible on the spot. By the end of the day, when all this has been done for you, it's great, but you would not be bothered by the nuances yourself.



06:10
MP: I would ask which might interest people as well, how do you cope with the attention of the media these days? I believe it is a lot harder for you since when I played there was no Internet, no smartphones, often after after I played a game, it didn’t reach to Estonia so I had to explain how the game went. Nowadays you can see almost every detail, well not the training but every situation. How have you handled it and is it a big difference with Germany, Augsburg a mid table team, to Liverpool?
RK: There is definitely a big difference. One thing is that you have two different lands, England and Germany. If you look at what’s happening in the English media plus what’s going on around football, there are a lot of things that are written about it. And there are plentiful of experts who want to and give their opinion. Fortunately, in Liverpool, I don’t know about your training center, where a journalist can’t simply come in and ask after training how’s it going. When you go to Melwood, you’re sure that the spokesman has told you that this interview is coming and whether you want to do it or not. You can play around it. You didn’t have this in Germany. In there you might have had a journalist visiting every training session, which was an open one and after that ask whatever he/she wanted. In England you need to be very careful about what you are saying, especially if your native language is not English. Then they’re gonna try to squeeze something out of you. I’m sure they tried the same tactic on you and maybe it’s stronger nowadays with the whole social media and so on.
MP: Yes, when I played there was no social media. And If I remember when I was injured for a long time in Sunderland second or third season and I have an interview in Estonia to “Õhtuleht” and I wasn’t really happy with the clubs medical staff work. So someone translated it and saw it was in a negative tone and I had a long time trying to explain it to the head coach of Sunderland. But yes you have to be careful especially today when you have Instagram, Facebook etc. That’s why I feel for you, since it must be more difficult for you.
RK: No, it's like, I don't know how to say, like everyone has such a chance, everyone has such an expert opinion and it's possible to reflect more. Maybe 10 years ago, there was like certain publications that were able to give something to the people, but from now on, anyone who wants to write an opinion piece of their own expert.



09:39
MP: Does the paparazzi also bothers you?
RK: Well, they'll get around there, but luckily I don't go to the city very often. That's the kind of family life. If you need anything, you're going to go to the supermarket and you don't spend much time in the city. It's also like in a different way than in Germany, but the scales are also like different, but in Augsburg it was nice to go on the city, some recognized and throw a high-five there and that's all. But in Liverpool several number of people are going to get around to create a circle around you, and you're with a family and that’s strange.
MP: So you have to plan as you go out with your family.?
RK: Yes, in that regard you have to consider that maybe it's going well that there's no like people who really want to take a picture, but it can also go like that, very many want to do. For Liverpool, this is a small town and a big club in there, well 2 big clubs. That this interest in football is very high.



10:57
MP: How are you getting along with the Everton fans? Is there any banter? Or is it benevolent?
RK: The ones that I've been exposed to are very friendly. Some time you drive a cab somewhere, “ooh I'm still an Everton fan” in that regard, he says he doesn't have anything against that club and I say that’s very good. Well, I haven't felt that kind of anger. I've been talking to them, but when it’s game time, the anger is pretty big that the last season when we played there in Goodison and that derby was still, you felt that, hateful atmosphere there between the fans and the whole stadium that it was quite an interesting experience. I don't know how you, maybe in London, the games are easier for all of this (rivalry)?

MP: London is so big, but I know that these top players also had their own car drivers, and they were supposed to have certain places from where they got in through the back door and out, but I remember there a couple of times in the field, these were all sealed territories but when there was some kind of news or scandal, I remember one time when Sol Campell was taken out of the game and went home with a nerve shock and the paparazzi followed some players cars then yes there were these cases, and the more famous player you are then obviously you have to be very careful about what you say, where you go and who you talk to. It was easier for me because I wasn’t such a big player or such an important player in Arsenal.


12:50
MP: But I would ask again, I'm curious about Jürgen Klopp, your coach. Is he this Duracell rabbit all the time? Such emotional and positive, looks like your man, tells you like that in the meantime or does he do lectures, or is it such all just a show? He makes the impression of a very charismatic coach at least what do we see in the press conferences and when he is instructing during the playtime?
RK: No he certainly is, Klopp's big plus is the recognition of the moment. You see at what moment he's gonna have to whip the team and when he is giving a carrot. The contingency reading is very good for him. Nor does he very often have a team's meetings, rather they do them before the training on the field or after the training on the field. It is evident that he will read well what is happening on the field and after the training says that the aggression is needed to be added or that you are working too much for some kind of game, take more calmly. Recognizing the moment is very well in place. That's one of his biggest plusses. In other parts, energy is still in the pile. That he can do all kinds of things. But it's not the same as with all the people if things are well, it's easy for everyone to be themselves, but if the pressure comes down, what happens to such a club very often, he may also be quite nervous at certain moments which is natural. Surely he is a human type of relatively opposite to Arsene Wenger, who seems to be very calm in every situation?
MP: I can say that Wenger was the most peaceful coach in my career. More like a teacher-type, Professor. A very good eye for the details, but I don't remember being particularly upset. In the meantime, when he is on the bench, but very seldom he said something more louder or with a loud voice of anger. Not the kind of energy bomb like Jürgen Klopp. Such calm and I think he respected every player regardless of your age, state that I think was a big deal.  Only good memories.
RK: With Klopp yes, there are those small, couple-second paragraphs that come from TV to TV viewers, then sometimes on the half time, put it in a couple of minutes that he can give to the team. Whether they are super positive or if something has gone very badly, there will be a couple of minutes of energetic scolding, tough words may come from there.



16:15
MP: Do you consider him the best coach of your career? Or can you compare with who you had in Germany, in the Netherlands?
RK: In this regard, the world top of trainers i've been with two, Louis Van Gaal and now Jürgen Klopp. I would say that Klopp is the better one, or the one I like more. To look at all such a set, he's also, assuredly brought up the right people in this regard, the other coach who is in the tactical side, he has all in place if there is something to change within the game or to make the shifts that he has tied to the right people like that. Van Gaal was rather a man who knows how he went, then he took different people around himself, but Klopp has exactly the triple that they have, they will always be complementary to each other.


17:30
MP: Tell me more about how you were taken to Liverpool as a new club? Did you have any kind of reception rituals? I think you had to sing?
RK: The rituals of the reception are quite common in England, I think it’s very common for the new players to sing. I had to sing, but it went like I didn't know if I was lucky or not, but I had to sing a German song. We had so many new players in the end, there were also those who were in the younger teams who were there for some kind of practice with the preparers, and the thing went on for so long that, in the end, they made this German group. So it was me, Manninger, Matip and Karius, and we had to sing the German language song Viva Victoria I think. Then I sang it out there, if I had been alone I would not imagine, I think I would have sang Saaremaa Valss there. I think you had something similar?
MP: I remember that in Arsenal I had to sing but it was a horrible experience (laughing) that I don’t want it to be recalled. In some other clubs, I remember that there were young players in Portsmouth who got like their first professional deal. So they were somewhere in the training field, I don't know, on top of a barrel and they had to stand naked, and there were pieces of ice thrown at them, and then the young people had to sing. I was lucky to get away with not doing such things. That there were all kinds of weird manners.



19:18
MP: How are you used to this British humor? You do probably have this training room banter in the team, as the Englishmen say?
RK: We have quite a lot of foreigners, right by that, it's less, but certainly it's still there. In any case, during international times there are these, small groupings that will emerge. It may be said that the UK is a bit on its own, then the Latin-Spanish community is on its own. Unfortunately, I can speak German and there are quite a lot of people with German background, so I am hanging out more with them. But the loudest voices are made by three Balkan men – [Lazar] Markovic, [Marko] Grujic and [Dejan] Lovren. Three people just can talk all over everyone, they're the loudest players.



20:31
MP: But who is the leader in the dressing room, who will wake up or setup the team. Your role it is in the Estonian lineup as captain, but who do you have?
RK: We have [Jordan] Henderson, [James] Milner and [Adam] Lallana like those who have taken this role on themselves. It is normal and it is also necessary that the locals are those who take such responsibility and in the role of the captain.


21:06
MP: Still English yes? One question for the “Kroonika” with who has the most cars?
RK: The person with the highest number of cars is Mamadou Sakho, but now he went away from us. Maybe at this moment, it's Sturridge. That this car park is yes, I think you even know what it was in Arsenal. They change these cars like underwear out there. So these very interesting machines are moving around there. I don't know, that's where it belongs to the English football, like there was no such thing in Germany. There were definite German cars in Germany and they were also proud and expensive, but England is such a very exclusive taste. I think there were very interesting machines in Arsenal.
MP: Yeah still saw when some new model came out. What it is, that McLaren seemed most fancy.
RK: It is in this regard, some new comes out, then somebody buys and someone else has to trump it, that such an internal struggle is quite high on it as well.



22:23
MP: But talk well, when looking at your career, it's a very logical way to go. Estonia, Holland perhaps not the top club, but then a higher club, Germany now England. Certainly behind it is a very big work, talent, will. I know that in Germany, in addition to the team's training, you used private coach's help. Is there any time for that now in England? The strength? Or how would you at all stay in that top competition? We talked about eating here. Are you gonna do something? Something secret? Or something for the young people?
RK: Well at this point in Liverpool I will say that the opportunity is practically not there. Okay, last season we had some more free time here, but this season you really play like 2 games a week. Basically, if you play these games, you're gonna dealing rest of your days only with the restoration. It's still quite a mystery how little practice we've actually done. Okay, those who have played less, they have some kind of practice where there's a heavy training, trying to get to the same level as those players who have already played. And then the same rhythm goes on like that, I don't know. Sometimes the practice really lasts some 40-50 minutes. It's just as interesting as to see what really is at the top when you look at the players who are there, like every year playing the way Arsenal played the main time for 20 years in a row and the Champions League. That this and plus you put this English League plan there with the Premier League games, the cup with the games that you have like 2 times a week specifically plus you will have the end of the December and January where there are more games. I say that, you have to be such a complex player in this regard as you are there and you don't have much time to deal with other things. I think the same in Arsenal, maybe in Derby and Sunderland, it was perhaps smaller but still the English League has so many games and you have so many different trophies. That there is so much less training when I compare with Germany for instance.

MP: But the intensity is definitely high, under Klopp it is his high pressure and these trainings I believe are still very intense and high quality. His trademark say to so.
RK: Well, it was like you went away from Germany and thought that okay now it can be like an English school like that, but then you're like a pretty pure German school plus like an extra added to it. That maybe I don't have the right thing like the English football school like you've actually met like you've been under the hands of very many different trainers. That I am exactly the young Germans in this relationship that trainers, 3 trainers who are, a fitness coach is a German. It's the same as the Bundesliga majority do there.
25:57
MP: How big is the technical staff you have? Certainly more than I played in my own time.
RK: We have four field trainers at the front, then the goalkeeper coach, five fitness trainers, if you go from there, then there are six physios, four massage. Three doctors, but they don't all work there on a daily basis. But when I see what the difference was compared to Augsburg, like they also had 3 coaches, goalkeeper coach, fitness coach, 2 physios, 1 massage and 1 doctor. And when you go to Liverpool you have 6 physios, 4 massage and so on, it seems like a little too much. How was Arsenal?
MP: It was less, [Arsene] Wenger didn't like making this staff very big. Now there's more, but at that time there was less. But now you have your own cook coming with you to the games as well as some suppliers. I remember we even had a sleeping coach, it was suggested that when you went to sleep, the routine. What mattress and pillow, trying to think of all kinds of little things. That 1% can be really important.
RK: We also, at this hotel, where we are before home games, were able to pick up the mattresses and then the mattresses were exchanged in the hotel. Such level as Arsenal and Liverpool, there will be thought of everything and try to do everything for the player to feel good and go and play. We have four hired people dealing with the “players' problems”. If you want, they can do everything for you. Pay off all the bills, pay the taxes. If you want to get a restaurant reservation, you send him a message. In terms of the idea, if you shoot, they can get you all out of the way, it's just to come over, put the putters on, get out and play. That is how it’s done is such a high caliber clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool.



28:41
MP: You spoke about the games, so a question: Who has been the hardest opponent of the attackers with whom you feel you have to be a hundred percent all the time? Who's the most prepared for headache? Either with their cunning, power or speed. Who is the hardest striker to defend against in the Premier League?
RK: The greatest surprise was Peter Crouch for me. If you look at that person, you look at him, you don't think he is a football player. But the technical luggage he has, the speed and at that age what he is, 36 must be at least? That he can give his all, it was a very, very big surprise for me when I played against him. At this moment, number one is [Sergio] Agüero. He looks like a little boy, but he's pretty strong, he's fast, technical. On the field, he's got a nose for scoring goals. I've been the hardest to play against him.

MP: If i remember correctly, when you played in the Augsburg Bundesliga, then you said Okazaki. Who now is in Leicester City. You've been playing against him, how he is now in England, he's been well played and adjusted that it was an interesting choice for me that you didn't mention the Bundesliga Lewandowski or the others, you said Okazaki.
RK: So now when it was the game we played out there with Leicester and what we lost 2:0 was when Okazaki came into play. He changed the game like. He can do so well to the press as if there are six midfielders or then like the middle-defenders, these other attackers were there to start nicely, as if the game was unfolded, Leicester had no chance and then in came Okazaki and his energy and the way he works for the team. It was also like one reason he was such a player for me, of course, as inbody, he is strong and fast. Similarly, as he played in Germany, it was yes, has never seen such a type of attacker before. He works for the team, and the same is in Liverpool why I like Firmino that he's the same,well, he's the world class quality, but he works for the team, he does the press that's especially necessary for today's football. You may say that the attacker only has to score goals, but if he's still on top football up there in the press, today's middle-defenders are already so good that they're going to hatch out behind this game. Firmino is so to say the importance in our club is very high.

MP: The last question, who has the strongest kick in Liverpool and who is the fastest? Maybe it’s you?
RK: Maybe with a long ball kick. But I am thinking that maybe...
MP: The best left foot is definitely on you?
RK: Yes. I think the strongest... if strength and precision are to be put together, then there is [Philippe] Coutinho, but he will come out so natural. You can see that a person doesn't tighten up when he does these strikes or he gives a long ball, it just comes to him. But at the speed, these missiles have been deployed in the front there in recent years, like[Sadio] Mane, [Mohamed] Salah and now [Alex] Oxlade-Chamberlain. I don't know who to classify the most fastest. I don't know who to classify the most fastest. Well, they have their own well, Mane certainly in that regard, if he's pushing for the ball, he's going to be fast. Salah who is like the long span looks like a very loose run, but in reality there is a very good speed. And now Oxlade-Chamberlain in the same way that, I can't give an answer on who is the fastest from that trio, we'll have to see how they play against me.


33:27
MP: Thanks Rangar, good luck on top of the Estonian squad games and then in Liverpool
RK: Thanks Mart, was very pleasing.