Michael Edwards does not want Liverpool’s scouts to be cautious when delivering their opinions. This explains why the club’s sporting director has implemented a simple grading system which makes it clear to him what they really think.
Each player under review is ranked from A to D. Top marks means urgent attention is required because the player is considered by the scout to have the capacity to replace someone in Liverpool’s first team. Grade B means the player could supplement what Liverpool already have or possess the potential to develop the squad either now or in the future. While C merits checking in with progress from time to time, D, simply, is considered not good enough.
Liverpool’s database is dominated by C and D grades because of the high standards being delivered by Jurgen Klopp’s side. An A is very rare and even rarer is a lightning bolt moment that leads a scout to tell Edwards that Liverpool must act straight away. Even a D will have had ample opportunities to impress. From the outside, it might be viewed as a waste of time watching a full-back fifteen or even 20 times only to form a conclusion that is not particularly positive but such exhaustive processes can lead scouts towards another player’s talent and with that, another trail begins.
For Edwards, the present almost matters less than the future. Even if he brokers a world-record deal for Virgil van Dijk or Alisson Becker, the scouts know they cannot afford to think everything will work out. It means their pursuit of a replacement begins almost straight away. There is also a belief at Liverpool that someone else out there might be better. Given that Van Dijk and Alisson have since proven themselves as world-class, this makes the challenge far from easy.
Liverpool’s scouting department is small compared to some of their rivals but this makes it easier to control. By comparison, up until last year, Manchester United had a representative posted to every significant football-playing country across the globe. That’s more than 80 scouts. At Liverpool between 12 and 15 have full-time contracts and the club does not use consultants. Each scout covers two or three countries or sub-regions at any one time, sometimes in conjunction with another role, say in the north or the south of England.
The demands on scouts at Liverpool are considerable because there are fewer of them. Yet Edwards believes the variety of the work helps keep minds fresher, therefore making judgments sharper. Though other clubs have a much higher number of employees, it does not mean they have a network that reaches further or, indeed, produces greater accuracy.
At Liverpool, it is considered that having someone across every league during every week of a season does not necessarily lead to better judgments and far-sighted decisions. Does the repetition of the work lead to a scout challenging his own opinion less? Does the same process happening over and over again eventually result in a lack of enthusiasm? A scout, who does not work for Liverpool, told The Athletic this week that he or any of his colleagues has to be excited whenever he enters a football stadium. He has to hope that he might see something he has not seen before.
Liverpool’s scouts are known for putting the miles in. It is said that at other Premier League clubs there are scouts who, as one intermediary put it “are reluctant to get their hands dirty”, which is basically his way of saying someone has worked only at the top, attending elite-level games without stretching their own boundaries.
“The scouts at Liverpool are addicts,” he suggests. There is one whose responsibilities are enormous, covering duties both in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world. Yet he still attends under-18 games involving League Two clubs on his days off, which are rare. Apparently, scouts at other clubs tease him for his appetite while he tells them they are lazy and full of excuses.
At Liverpool, scouts are asked to focus on players under the age of 24 but each one has the freedom to operate in a way they feel is appropriate to the region. Some even use sources on Twitter to find out which young players have made their debuts in a far-flung field. There are no directives from the club about how many times a scout should watch a player but professional debutants tend to be designated five games from the point of their introductions. The majority end up with D grades.
From afar, Edwards allows the scouts to get on with their jobs. They make their own travel arrangements but have the option to use a club account with an official provider. He is not in daily contact with them, asking what they are up to either verbally or via email. Only if he has a query does he get in touch. Scouts tend to think Edwards is good company whenever they meet him but appreciate he has a lot of work to do. His remit is not just the scouting department. This means that most work with him from a respectful distance and wait for his call.
Liverpool’s scouts file their reports on an online system. They have the option to restrict who sees it, though the club’s owners are allowed to look at whatever they want. There are entry sections for statistics and notes, which can relate to personal status. If a player is going through a divorce or has a gambling problem — or, more commonly, if a player’s representative is his father and he’s very protective of his son, Liverpool want to know about it and have records that include as much detail as possible.
More or less every professional game of football including friendlies across Europe is now recorded by camera and this means scouts have the option to add videos to their findings. Liverpool use InStat, the independent sports performance tool, which allows clips to be made from each match.
Liverpool, like most clubs, also have an account with a service called Scout7, which collects data from all matches across the world. Though the idea of developing their own data system was floated several years ago, it was decided that correlating data from all of the matches was a huge logistical challenge and ultimately a waste of time considering this sort of finite information was universally available.
“It is what a club does with the data that matters most anyway,” says a representative of another Premier League club. And Liverpool are known to be ahead of the game in that field as well given the presence of Ian Graham, who leads the analytics department, as well as William Spearman, the lesser-known computer programmer.
Edwards rarely calls scouting summits. Maybe once or twice a year will those who operate remotely in Britain travel to Merseyside. They’ll have lunch together and sometimes, Klopp will pop in but not always. When Liverpool reach finals, scouts are invited but otherwise, because they are so dispersed, it is very difficult to get together for social occasions.
It is felt that the system works because it is simple, personable and because trust exists. Interests are so closely aligned and that is a testament to the work of Graham, Dave Fallows — the head of recruitment and in charge of strategy, and Barry Hunter, the chief scout. The lines of communication are never closed and each scout knows that.
It has also helped scouts that the club has not been overly ambitious with expectations in public. Outsiders have compared the approach to the old Boot Room, where Bob Paisley, Joe ***an and Roy Evans quietly went about their jobs without singing from the hills, listening to what was going on at other clubs rather than talking about their own. They knew that information was priceless. They also knew that Liverpool had the figureheads above them who were able to process that information and influence what was happening on the pitch.
It has not always been like this.
In his earliest days at Liverpool, Edwards was dismissed by some as a number cruncher who walked around the training ground with a spreadsheet. There was friction with Brendan Rodgers, the former manager, who saw him as a threat to his authority.
Edwards’ position, however, was never under threat because of support from Fenway Sports Group’s Mike Gordon, who admired his objectivity — particularly the way he dealt with bias in any decision-making process, acknowledging its potentially detrimental effect in football where it is difficult for many to filter out emotional responses. Gordon had seen how decisive Edwards could be. If the data of a player — even if he was well-liked at Liverpool — dropped below expectations, he would ensure the development was flagged and this led to conversations starting about the future.
The FSG president concluded that such clarity and ruthlessness would help keep Liverpool in a healthy position. Yet he also realised the club needed a world-class manager to ensure the chances of that happening went up. Gordon wanted to know before Klopp’s appointment whether Edwards and Klopp would be comfortable enough in each other’s company to express constructive disagreement.
Each player under review is ranked from A to D. Top marks means urgent attention is required because the player is considered by the scout to have the capacity to replace someone in Liverpool’s first team. Grade B means the player could supplement what Liverpool already have or possess the potential to develop the squad either now or in the future. While C merits checking in with progress from time to time, D, simply, is considered not good enough.
Liverpool’s database is dominated by C and D grades because of the high standards being delivered by Jurgen Klopp’s side. An A is very rare and even rarer is a lightning bolt moment that leads a scout to tell Edwards that Liverpool must act straight away. Even a D will have had ample opportunities to impress. From the outside, it might be viewed as a waste of time watching a full-back fifteen or even 20 times only to form a conclusion that is not particularly positive but such exhaustive processes can lead scouts towards another player’s talent and with that, another trail begins.
For Edwards, the present almost matters less than the future. Even if he brokers a world-record deal for Virgil van Dijk or Alisson Becker, the scouts know they cannot afford to think everything will work out. It means their pursuit of a replacement begins almost straight away. There is also a belief at Liverpool that someone else out there might be better. Given that Van Dijk and Alisson have since proven themselves as world-class, this makes the challenge far from easy.
Liverpool’s scouting department is small compared to some of their rivals but this makes it easier to control. By comparison, up until last year, Manchester United had a representative posted to every significant football-playing country across the globe. That’s more than 80 scouts. At Liverpool between 12 and 15 have full-time contracts and the club does not use consultants. Each scout covers two or three countries or sub-regions at any one time, sometimes in conjunction with another role, say in the north or the south of England.
The demands on scouts at Liverpool are considerable because there are fewer of them. Yet Edwards believes the variety of the work helps keep minds fresher, therefore making judgments sharper. Though other clubs have a much higher number of employees, it does not mean they have a network that reaches further or, indeed, produces greater accuracy.
At Liverpool, it is considered that having someone across every league during every week of a season does not necessarily lead to better judgments and far-sighted decisions. Does the repetition of the work lead to a scout challenging his own opinion less? Does the same process happening over and over again eventually result in a lack of enthusiasm? A scout, who does not work for Liverpool, told The Athletic this week that he or any of his colleagues has to be excited whenever he enters a football stadium. He has to hope that he might see something he has not seen before.
Liverpool’s scouts are known for putting the miles in. It is said that at other Premier League clubs there are scouts who, as one intermediary put it “are reluctant to get their hands dirty”, which is basically his way of saying someone has worked only at the top, attending elite-level games without stretching their own boundaries.
“The scouts at Liverpool are addicts,” he suggests. There is one whose responsibilities are enormous, covering duties both in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world. Yet he still attends under-18 games involving League Two clubs on his days off, which are rare. Apparently, scouts at other clubs tease him for his appetite while he tells them they are lazy and full of excuses.
At Liverpool, scouts are asked to focus on players under the age of 24 but each one has the freedom to operate in a way they feel is appropriate to the region. Some even use sources on Twitter to find out which young players have made their debuts in a far-flung field. There are no directives from the club about how many times a scout should watch a player but professional debutants tend to be designated five games from the point of their introductions. The majority end up with D grades.
From afar, Edwards allows the scouts to get on with their jobs. They make their own travel arrangements but have the option to use a club account with an official provider. He is not in daily contact with them, asking what they are up to either verbally or via email. Only if he has a query does he get in touch. Scouts tend to think Edwards is good company whenever they meet him but appreciate he has a lot of work to do. His remit is not just the scouting department. This means that most work with him from a respectful distance and wait for his call.
Liverpool’s scouts file their reports on an online system. They have the option to restrict who sees it, though the club’s owners are allowed to look at whatever they want. There are entry sections for statistics and notes, which can relate to personal status. If a player is going through a divorce or has a gambling problem — or, more commonly, if a player’s representative is his father and he’s very protective of his son, Liverpool want to know about it and have records that include as much detail as possible.
More or less every professional game of football including friendlies across Europe is now recorded by camera and this means scouts have the option to add videos to their findings. Liverpool use InStat, the independent sports performance tool, which allows clips to be made from each match.
Liverpool, like most clubs, also have an account with a service called Scout7, which collects data from all matches across the world. Though the idea of developing their own data system was floated several years ago, it was decided that correlating data from all of the matches was a huge logistical challenge and ultimately a waste of time considering this sort of finite information was universally available.
“It is what a club does with the data that matters most anyway,” says a representative of another Premier League club. And Liverpool are known to be ahead of the game in that field as well given the presence of Ian Graham, who leads the analytics department, as well as William Spearman, the lesser-known computer programmer.
Edwards rarely calls scouting summits. Maybe once or twice a year will those who operate remotely in Britain travel to Merseyside. They’ll have lunch together and sometimes, Klopp will pop in but not always. When Liverpool reach finals, scouts are invited but otherwise, because they are so dispersed, it is very difficult to get together for social occasions.
It is felt that the system works because it is simple, personable and because trust exists. Interests are so closely aligned and that is a testament to the work of Graham, Dave Fallows — the head of recruitment and in charge of strategy, and Barry Hunter, the chief scout. The lines of communication are never closed and each scout knows that.
It has also helped scouts that the club has not been overly ambitious with expectations in public. Outsiders have compared the approach to the old Boot Room, where Bob Paisley, Joe ***an and Roy Evans quietly went about their jobs without singing from the hills, listening to what was going on at other clubs rather than talking about their own. They knew that information was priceless. They also knew that Liverpool had the figureheads above them who were able to process that information and influence what was happening on the pitch.
It has not always been like this.
In his earliest days at Liverpool, Edwards was dismissed by some as a number cruncher who walked around the training ground with a spreadsheet. There was friction with Brendan Rodgers, the former manager, who saw him as a threat to his authority.
Edwards’ position, however, was never under threat because of support from Fenway Sports Group’s Mike Gordon, who admired his objectivity — particularly the way he dealt with bias in any decision-making process, acknowledging its potentially detrimental effect in football where it is difficult for many to filter out emotional responses. Gordon had seen how decisive Edwards could be. If the data of a player — even if he was well-liked at Liverpool — dropped below expectations, he would ensure the development was flagged and this led to conversations starting about the future.
The FSG president concluded that such clarity and ruthlessness would help keep Liverpool in a healthy position. Yet he also realised the club needed a world-class manager to ensure the chances of that happening went up. Gordon wanted to know before Klopp’s appointment whether Edwards and Klopp would be comfortable enough in each other’s company to express constructive disagreement.
