Data science: Liverpool’s secret weapon to success

When Liverpool chose not to buy a single player in the summer transfer window before the season started, many including me questioned their decision and whether that would backfire. 

But as things stand, they are on the cusp of winning the Premier League this season and doing it by possibly breaking the number of points collected. 

So what has allowed Liverpool to continue to build and perform with the same squad, and do better, despite falling short but the smallest margins in the league last season? Data science. 

Many will credit the arrival of manager Jurgen Klopp as the main talisman behind the team's success but one person that has hardly had a mention is Ian Graham, the team's director of research. 

Three weeks after the appointment of Jurgen Klopp in November 2015, Graham was hired. 

Graham's not a football fan and nor did he watch Borussia Dortmund's games back when Klopp was in charge. 

But with data analysis, he was able to point out the areas that needed improving in Klopp's last season at Dortmund. 

And Graham has been doing the same at Liverpool with a plethora of data and crunching it down to which players fit where and what tactical system to best employ. 

Klopp had success at Dortmund, winning two Bundesliga titles and a German Cup but he never managed to turn that team into arguably the best team in Europe and he was a believer of data science

Graham, who has a PhD in theoretical physics, got his data and his numbers to do the talking and that convinced Klopp to embrace it.

The data science team

Michael Edwards, the club's sporting director, is a former analyst himself having previously spent time at Portsmouth and Spurs.  

Liverpool's data science team also includes Tim Waskett, an astrophysicist, and Will Spearman, who has a doctorate in philosophy.

Klopp's heavy metal gegenpressing had evolved into 'pitch control', where it's all about making the right data-driven decisions so that the team can use the pitch to its full potential. 

Horses for courses

While most teams are always trying to buy the best players available on the market and then fitting them in their club's system, Liverpool have been buying players that perfectly fit their system.

When they sold Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona, they did not try to replace him but rather changed their game to allow the other players to perform to their best. 

Gini Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson may not be the most creative midfielders, but they have been chipping in with the goals from midfield when it mattered. 

No glamour buys

In this day and age where the market is so inflated that a decently hyped player easily exceeds the 50 million Euro threshold, Liverpool have been going for the less glamorous names. 

They did spend big in defence with Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk but they were necessities and areas where they knew these players could improve. 

In other words, the money received from the Coutinho transfer was well spent. 

Even previously, when Sadio Mane, Mo Salah and Bobby Firmino were bought, they were exciting talents but not glamorous signings, and were all less than 50 million Euros.  

Leaders on and off the pitch

A trait many football teams these days lack are leadership and leaders on the pitch.

The coach of the manager can set up the team in a particular way and expect them to play to those instructions but a team needs leaders on the pitch when the going gets tough.

And players like Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson are all leaders on the pitch. 

They can help instruct and organise during the game and it's one of the key differences between Liverpool and their title rivals Manchester city.

Finding talented players is not that difficult, but finding leaders that understand the club ethos and help the team gel are rare to find. 

In previous seasons teams that have spent the most in their respective leagues - Juventus, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, PSG, Real Madrid and Barcelona - have been the ones dominating in the league and in Europe.

But Liverpool have shown that things can be done differently and instead of spending big on players, it's about having the right set of players that merge well with the right set of backroom staff. 

Teams are becoming more and more aware of this and trying to follow this trend to avoid spending overboard on an inflated market.

Although Financial Fair Play has been lifted due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the smaller clubs will have to work with a limited budget and that means that data science will be the way to go.

Data science is the next evolution in football.