Liverpool and Red Sox, American owner, revealed how he chose a losing coach to take charge of the 'Reds' to take them to European glory.
John W. Henry bought Liverpool, a historic team from England, in 2010 when the club was in an economic and sports crisis, his mission was to return the Anfield squad to the top in the Premier and to become a central team in the Champions League. But it was in 2015 that he found the perfect recipe to reach its goal.
After three years, Red Sox and Boston Globe owner revealed the method on which he relied to hire Jürgen Klopp, a losing strategist who would be in charge of settling Liverpool at the top of the football world was. Henry didn't trust in public opinion, so he looked for a mathematical method very similar to 'Moneyball.'
According to El País, John W. Henry used a mathematical model of a Cambridge physicist to select the coach and reinforcements essential for Liverpool to win the UEFA Champions League, which they did last Saturday in Madrid.
Liverpool's owner is an expert of advanced statistics, so when he saw Ian Graham study, he realized this was the method he wanted to follow to form winning a team.
Ian Graham study is about eliminating the numerous random football elements to conclude without distortions. The New York Times revealed that to obtain this data, the Cambridge doctor did not see any football match since that could bias the final result.
When Graham was appointed the head of analysis in Liverpool, the magic began, along with Dafydd Steele and Will Spearman set up a lab in Melwood to identify the best strategist to face this new project, as well as looked for the right players.
Three seasons after starting the project results began to appear for themselves, from being half table in England, Liverpool has two Champions League finals in a row and are runner-ups of the Premier League with 97 points.
Since the Klopp and analysts project began, the 'Reds' have spent close to 180 million euros. Signing players like Salah, Mnaé, Wijnaldun, Formino, Robertson, Becker, Fabinho and Van Dijk; they're the spine of the 2018-19 Champions League champions.
Between Becker, Fabinho and Van Dijk, on the one hand, the Dutch defender is the most expensive in the world, 84 million were spent in a defender who did not lose a heads-up in the last 64 games. In the Brazilian goalkeeper were paid about 82 million, making him the most expensive goalkeeper in the world and finally the Brazilian midfielder, Fabinho in which Liverpool spent 50 million, which were worth every penny, as he became the mind behind Klopp's game this season.
So far things have gone well for John W. Henry with the math system, but this summer everything can change since there's talk about some of his stars leaving the club, but it'll be necessary to see who the new additions are.