Liverpool FC Forum

Beyond the now fabled 'transfer committee', though, Liverpool are at the forefront of a scouting revolution across the game.

For years, clubs have clung to the traditional model of identifying players, dispatching scouts to watch players live in action before listening to the assessments in their feedback.

But with the game starting to embrace a new-age, the Reds are helping to pioneer digital techniques that are being used to unearth ability in never-ending recruitment searches.

The naked eye of an experienced talent-spotter will perhaps never be beaten when it comes to gathering information on potential players, but with the game so vast - and more competitive than ever - whittling down potential targets has become a tough task.

Liverpool's scouting network is a sprawling, global operation, but back at base in West Derby, director of research Ian Graham and his team are helping Klopp and Edwards shine a light on lesser-known players with potential.

"We get data on every ball touch that every player makes in a game, where it was on the pitch, and what happened next," Graham explains. "We can see where all of the players are, at 25 frames per second. It’s done with optical tracking. The same technology that is used for missile-tracking.

"The thing that I’m really obsessed about is the risk-reward payoff of passes. So, some of the best passers in the game have some of the lowest pass-completion percentages in the game. And that’s because the risk-reward payoff is very, very skewed in soccer or football.

"And the passes I really love are the passes that go in behind the opposition defence, that take four or five defenders out of the game. Those passes are really hard to make. But someone who gets those passes correct half the time would be a world-class attacking midfielder.

"So you’ve got the traditional methods of scouting, some newer methods of video scouting, the coaches and the manager have to be on board and enthusiastic about the player. My role is the data-analysis side of analyzing football, which is the newer side." Graham's work was believed to have been integral in helping identify both Naby Keita and Salah as players Klopp should be targeting, while the numbers found in Andy Robertson's data made his signing something of a no-brainer for a club who needed a left-back in the summer of 2017.

"You try to find out about 14, 15 or 16-year-olds. Do we need one? Can we bring them in? You always look at who is out of contract, who has one year left, so that the transfer fee won't be too high and then obviously you have the best list ready for whatever needs to happen.