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And Patrick Montgomery, who worked for the Reds during a glittering period under Jurgen Klopp, also revealed how Diogo Jota's data stood out to bring him from Wolves in September.

Montgomery worked for Liverpool for close to eight years up until December of last year and served as the club's head of first-team scouting and recruitment analysis for four years up until his recent departure.

During his time, the Reds went from a top-four hopeful to a side who won every top-level trophy available to them between the years of 2019 and 2022, including a first league title for 30 years and a sixth European Cup under Klopp.



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Sitting down for a chat with The Breakdown podcast, which is an off-shoot of Sky Sports' Overlap channel, former analyst Montgomery explained how £37m Salah's struggles at Chelsea were largely discounted from the discussion when the Egypt star became a transfer target in the summer of 2017.

And the former Reds' talent-spotter also explained what the department looked for when it came to signing players for Klopp's squad during his time on Merseyside.

"We touched on it before, it's playing style," he says.

He had to then go and rebuild his career.

"But I think it probably challenged your biases as well, so going right OK, just because this player might not play for one of the 'top, top teams' doesn't mean he can't come into a club like Liverpool at the time and do really, really well.

"So I think keeping an open mind [is important] but then that is credit to the guys at the club who were willing to say: 'Right OK, we'll really go for that and invest in that.' When it might not have been the case previously when there were loads of big, big clubs going for some of these players.

And then really understanding what a Liverpool player is.

"That is a very small pool in the grand scheme of things but I think you've got to have an understanding of could this player translate to that particular position or style.

So I think things develop across seasons and years, more in terms of structure and resources and obviously the head of data at the time was Ian Graham and there was a real collaboration with data and scouting.

"So we shared an office and I think the guys still do now, so working in conjunction really so you can really crack on from a scouting perspective.

He didn't necessarily get involved in link-play, holding the ball up but one thing he was relentless at was attacking the box, runs, back post and then that translated really well when he joined that he was able to - and he still is - replicating that.

"Whereas you might look at that from the outside and think it was a strange signing or maybe a different signing, not a player from a top-four club but someone who could fit into the system stylistically.

"I think naturally not everyone is going to agree all the time from scouting and data or even within each department but it can be a really healthy thing.

It can create a debate and that can be really fruitful in the end.

"That was one good thing at the club, and still is at the club, because the relationships are strong from both sides, there was always an environment for people to be open and say they think this because of X, Y, Z.
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