Former analyst: Klopp wanted Brandt at the time, but we used data to convince him to choose Salah

Hupu News on November 13 Recently, Liverpool’s former chief data scientist Ian Graham revealed the behind-the-scenes stories of several key transfers of the Red Army at the TransferRoom Summit in Lisbon. The director of data analysis, who has served the club for more than ten years, revealed that even legendary signings like Egyptian striker Salah were not initially the first choice of then coach Klopp.

About signing Salah transfer

"In the summer of 2017, Klopp had a large say in signings, " Graham admitted in an exclusive interview with Sky Sports. "He insisted on signing the then-young German midfielder Brandt because of the talent and potential shown by the young player. Through our data analysis system, although we agree that Brandt should be included in the four candidates for this position, he is not our first choice. "

"Salah has advantages in all data dimensions, " Graham emphasized, "Klopp's excellence is that he was finally convinced by the data and successfully convinced the management that despite Salah's downturn at Chelsea, he was still a better choice. In fact, his performance in Serie A was amazing. Even in the Premier League, he did not perform poorly, but just lacked opportunities. This is similar to the situation of De Bruyne and Lukaku under Mourinho. It does not take a genius to see Salah's strength, but the data does The decision to invest more than £40 million in the 26-year-old rather than the younger Brandt gave the American owners a solid basis. "

The stories behind signing Mane

"Klopp once again showed his trust in us when he strongly advocated signing Mane from Southampton, even though he received a lot of negative comments about the player's behavior. We felt that this issue could be dealt with appropriately, after all, his statistics were extremely bright at the time. It would be a pity not to try to introduce him. In the end, Mane not only proved that he is an outstanding player, but also showed that he is a person with excellent character and rigorous professional attitude. Klopp made a lot of efforts in pushing the club management to introduce Mane. Husband. In fact, Mane was recommended to Klopp when he was coaching Dortmund, but he chose Camper. Perhaps he later regretted that decision. "

Was there a time when the data "failed"? Look at the three examples of Aspas, Balotelli and Keita

"Yes, our judgment is not accurate every time." Graham mentioned three examples of less successful signings: "The first one to bear the brunt is Aspas. He is indeed a strong player. We introduced him in 2013 in the hope that he could replace Suarez, but he really didn't get many opportunities. , even if he played, he never scored a goal. In the hearts of the fans, he was like a "low-end version" of Suarez. It was only after he returned to La Liga that he proved that he was an outstanding striker. Choice. But that year, we spent too much time on some unsuccessful transfers, and finally felt that Mario might be suitable for us. Like Aspas, he didn't play much. Although he had great potential, he just lacked luck in front of the goal. "

"The last example is Keita. We have always admired him from Leipzig. His statistics were pretty good, and he had almost no injury record. But he just didn't fit into our rotation well, at least not to our expectations. Every time he played a good series, he would have physical problems, which was completely unpredictable, and he had never been like this before.