The Inside Story of Liverpool FC Transfers under Jurgen Klopp & Brendan Rodgers

Following the launch of his book, 'How to Win the Premier League: The Inside Story of Football’s Data Revolution', Dr Ian Graham spoke to This Is Anfield about his time as Liverpool FC's director of research and how he influenced Jurgen Klopp's transfers.

00:30 Graham's Role at LFC
02:20 Brendan Rodgers' conflicting style
08:00 Tom Ince or Philippe Coutinho?
13:20 Rodgers’ obsession with Christian Benteke
19:50 Jurgen Klopp's arrival
27:28 Benteke or Diego Costa?
29:55 Nabil Fekir
38:00 Why Graham left
42:45 Liverpool now
44:05 Identify potential
47:25 Michael Edwards

[thisisanfield]

Thanks to everyone who has watched the full interview and found it interesting, much appreciated!

Please do like and share the interview 🙌🏽

[samarthshah]

How has this interview not gone viral on football/liverpool twitter? Absolutely brilliant!

[strictlyfootball]

The facts we only got Coutinho because Tom Ince deal fell through is quite horrifying oh my days

[Bleech]

With my attention span it's rare for me to get through an interview that long but that was fascinating. It flew by. Really insightful.

[dylanknowles]

Incredibly insightful. A Villa fan here with a soft spot for all things Liverpudlian. Liverpool always seem to find some great players, and produce them. The academy must save a lot of money etc.

Villa seem to be adopting a similar approach to transfers, data driven. It’s a bonus that Emery has selected the supporting team, including the Sporting Director, scouts etc. Great interview!

[jeromeswanson]

Awesome interview, best I've heard in ages, so insightful and frank. Thanks for organizing this lads!

[phild]

Poor Brendan. All he wanted was brilliant technicians who were wonderful human beings

[bullsbears]

Incredible stuff. Makes you wonder how much our lack of financial flexibility really affected getting the targets that shot off the charts. What a difficult job.

[srivatsanawaitsu]

Brilliant interview this.. goes to show FSG is very very clear from Day 1 on how they want to run the club. They gave in a little but slowly steered the club in their way. With Arnie now, the road is 100% clear now. Fair play to FSG.

[osmansavkuev]

Wow, what a gem of an interview. This is why I subscribed to TIS. Keep up the good work!

[niklasbirksted]

The white stripes in the corners are very disturbing for the viewing experience. But the interview is

[JKribbit]

Great interview! Would love to hear more about the club's signing philosophy based on each players' characters as well. I've been a Red for 30 years and I honestly can say that our lads last couple of seasons have one of the best chemistry with proper characters. Half our starting XI were national team captains! That says something.

[MrTechnodudelife]

I’ve been waiting years to hear this man speak

[badblood]

What a good watch. Thank you for sharing this TIA, appreciated 👍

[genes]

very Insightful, particularly hearing about the Rodgers era. Good One !

[glennmcmurray]

Used to be a common complaint on the old TIA Forums that Rodgers always wanted to sign the players who did well against us, especially if they scored.

From Clyne to Lovren to Benteke it somehow didn't occur to Brendan to think about how they would fit in but when they played well and scored against us that was enough for him unfortunately.

[kingjariSOS]

Fascinating interview, can't wait for the book now.

[emilnikolov_]

Brilliant interview, just shows how clueless Brendan was. Confidence through the roof for some reason.

[nikhilkarmakar]

Ian Graham took a proper dig on Barcelona about that 'stupid bid' 😂

[aamirmahmood]

Love it, great to put a face and process to how Liverpool signed these absolute gems! Coutinho was a masterclass signing in retrospect, the exit was handled even better. We still need to find a Coutinho replacement, thats how important that signing was.