Liverpool set to appoint a sporting director at the behest of Jürgen Klopp. That sporting director is expected to be Michael Edwards.
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Michael Edwards has been appointed sporting director at Liverpool Football Club
Liverpool are set to appoint Michael Edwards as the club’s sporting director.
The 37-year-old will be promoted to the newly-created role from his current position as technical director.
The decision by owners Fenway Sports Group has the full backing of manager Jurgen Klopp, who worked within the same structure at Borussia Dortmund.
Klopp has enjoyed a close working relationship with Edwards over the past 13 months and believes he’s the perfect man for the job.
Edwards, who has been at Liverpool since November 2011, will be put in charge of all football operations and will be responsible for player recruitment for both the first team and the Academy.
With chief executive Ian Ayre leaving Anfield at the end of the season, the ECHO understands that Edwards will take on full responsibility for transfer and contract negotiations with immediate effect. Klopp will continue to have the final say on all signings.
Chief Executive Ian Ayre, Linda Pizzuti Henry, Principal Owner John W. Henry, team manager Jurgen Klopp, Club Chairman Tom Werner, and President Mike Gordon
Fenway Sports Group have long since favoured the continental model of having a sporting director or a director of football working with a manager.
Damien Comolli filled that role from November 2010 until the Frenchman was sacked in April 2012. The American owners had intended to replace Comolli in the summer of 2012 but they were talked out of it by new boss Brendan Rodgers, who wanted sole control.
As a result the transfer committee was born which included FSG president Mike Gordon, Ayre, Rodgers, director of scouting Dave Fallows, chief scout Barry Hunter and Edwards.
Liverpool's chief scout Barry Hunter back in his playing days with Northern Ireland Credit:Action Images / Nick Potts
That was often a source of friction during Rodgers’ reign with the Northern Irishman bemoaning not being able to get the targets he wanted. However, there have been no murmurings of discontent since Klopp took over.
Klopp insisted he had “100% backing” from FSG last summer and he believes Edwards has both the knowledge and the expertise to help him ensure Liverpool build on their flying start to the season.
Edwards has never had a public profile at Liverpool but he’s enjoyed a meteoric rise under FSG since he was brought to Anfield by Comolli in 2011.
Initially, he was head of analytics – poring over the mass of data Premier League clubs gather on players in every match and providing reports.
Jordan Henderson with Damian Comolli
Once Comolli left in 2012, Edwards took on greater responsibility. In June 2013 he was promoted to the role of director of technical performance and was then made technical director in August 2015.
Edwards graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in business management and informatics before putting his IT knowledge to use in the world of football.
He was Portsmouth’s head of performance analysis from 2003 to 2009 before being headhunted by Tottenham.
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Dated Oct 2015
[article]
[article]
NAME: Michael Edwards
ROLE: Director of technical performance – In a nutshell, he assesses the data of players from leagues around the world and determines whether a player will be a suitable fit for Liverpool in terms of playing and economics. Worked at Portsmouth from 2003 to 2009 before moving to Tottenham.
[/article]
Each morning, when Liverpool's principal owner John W Henry and director Michael Gordon wake up in Boston, their inboxes ping with emails from the club's head of technical performance.
Michael Edwards, who is based at Liverpool's Melwood training ground, has become FSG's go-to guy in England after aligning himself with the data-driven model of the group's baseball team, the Boston Red Sox.
This cosy relationship with FSG, dropping the owners emails throughout the day and increasing his power at the club, led to a strained relationship with former manager Brendan Rodgers.
Edwards encourages staff to use his nickname 'Eddie', giving a matey feel to the working environment. It is understood Rodgers has another name for him.
Edwards fell perfectly into place with FSG's Moneyball strategy, the statistical model designed to extract maximum value in the transfer market. Clearly, with the club 10th in the league and paying up to three times the going rate for players, it needs refinement.
Despite a lack of playing experience at any relevant level, Edwards, who earns £300,000 a year, has a big say on Liverpool's notorious transfer committee. He would arrive for meetings with Rodgers, managing director Ian Ayre, chief scout Barry Hunter and head of recruitment Dave Fallows armed with the latest data on potential targets.
The committee have yet to explain how they came up with the figure of £29million to sign Brazilian forward Roberto Firmino from Hoffenheim, who finished eighth in the Bundesliga last season.
Divock Origi, billed as 'a world-class talent' by Rodgers when he was signed from Lille, could not even come off the bench in the club's last two league games. There are countless other errors.
After each Liverpool game Edwards emails analysis and data to the club's owners in America, detailing where the match was won and lost. It has made for grim reading this season.
Edwards has used his relationship with FSG to strengthen his hand at the club, becoming a trusted source of information to a group of people who are obsessed with statistical analysis.
There is a relationship with Bill James, the American stats guru who is employed by the Red Sox to provide Henry and Gordon with data for their baseball team.
Edwards can tap away at a laptop and within seconds tell you how many assists the 24-year-old Turkish left back Eren Albayrak has made for Rizespor this season (four).
Edwards and his team of analysts have invented a new language for football. Strikers are all about goal expectancy, chances created and the percentage of successful passes in the final third. Old-school managers just want to know if the boy can put the ball in the net. Defensive midfielders are judged on interceptions and the number of challenges won in the centre of the pitch.
The increasing influence of analysts, young men who have no experience of scouting or recruiting players, has meant the end of the road for good football men such as Mel Johnson. He was the scout who recommended Liverpool sign talented young winger Jordon Ibe from Wycombe but was sacked, shamefully, in November 2014. Former academy director Frank McParland has also left.
Instead a new breed sits in air-conditioned offices, cutting up videos from matches all over the world and burying their heads in the stats. Edwards, along with his vast team of analysts, constantly monitors the opposition, providing detail about playing positions, style, routines, set-pieces and other important matchday information.
They profile players based on their last 10-20 appearances, gathering information and helping Rodgers build a presentation for his players before matches that was usually a maximum of 10 pages on each team. It is a useful, but far from infallible, tool.
Edwards, who is in his late thirties, began his career as part of the video analysis team at Portsmouth before leaving to work with Harry Redknapp again when he became Tottenham manager.
There, Edwards struck up a relationship with Ian Graham at Decision Technology, a data firm collecting statistics on players from all over the world.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy paid Decision Technology a fortune each season for their services, trusting their analysis and using Edwards, in his newly created role as head of performance analysis, to make sense of it all.
Edwards was head-hunted by Damien Comolli when the Frenchman became director of football at Liverpool, turning down an increased salary of £250,000 a year at White Hart Lane to join the Anfield revolution. Levy was distraught.
Since then he has emerged as a senior figure at Liverpool, empowered by FSG to make the call on big transfer targets after gaining their trust since his arrival in 2011.
His relationship with Rodgers deteriorated shortly after the former Liverpool manager signed a contract worth £6m a year just a week after Liverpool finished within two points of claiming the Barclays Premier League title.
They clashed over transfer strategy, although Rodgers went on record to insist that he always had the final say over the recruitment of players earmarked for the first-team squad.
In the end, Edwards had his number.
[/article]
[article]
[article]
NAME: Michael Edwards
ROLE: Director of technical performance – In a nutshell, he assesses the data of players from leagues around the world and determines whether a player will be a suitable fit for Liverpool in terms of playing and economics. Worked at Portsmouth from 2003 to 2009 before moving to Tottenham.
[/article]
Each morning, when Liverpool's principal owner John W Henry and director Michael Gordon wake up in Boston, their inboxes ping with emails from the club's head of technical performance.
Michael Edwards, who is based at Liverpool's Melwood training ground, has become FSG's go-to guy in England after aligning himself with the data-driven model of the group's baseball team, the Boston Red Sox.
This cosy relationship with FSG, dropping the owners emails throughout the day and increasing his power at the club, led to a strained relationship with former manager Brendan Rodgers.
Edwards encourages staff to use his nickname 'Eddie', giving a matey feel to the working environment. It is understood Rodgers has another name for him.
Edwards fell perfectly into place with FSG's Moneyball strategy, the statistical model designed to extract maximum value in the transfer market. Clearly, with the club 10th in the league and paying up to three times the going rate for players, it needs refinement.
Despite a lack of playing experience at any relevant level, Edwards, who earns £300,000 a year, has a big say on Liverpool's notorious transfer committee. He would arrive for meetings with Rodgers, managing director Ian Ayre, chief scout Barry Hunter and head of recruitment Dave Fallows armed with the latest data on potential targets.
The committee have yet to explain how they came up with the figure of £29million to sign Brazilian forward Roberto Firmino from Hoffenheim, who finished eighth in the Bundesliga last season.
Divock Origi, billed as 'a world-class talent' by Rodgers when he was signed from Lille, could not even come off the bench in the club's last two league games. There are countless other errors.
After each Liverpool game Edwards emails analysis and data to the club's owners in America, detailing where the match was won and lost. It has made for grim reading this season.
Edwards has used his relationship with FSG to strengthen his hand at the club, becoming a trusted source of information to a group of people who are obsessed with statistical analysis.
There is a relationship with Bill James, the American stats guru who is employed by the Red Sox to provide Henry and Gordon with data for their baseball team.
Edwards can tap away at a laptop and within seconds tell you how many assists the 24-year-old Turkish left back Eren Albayrak has made for Rizespor this season (four).
Edwards and his team of analysts have invented a new language for football. Strikers are all about goal expectancy, chances created and the percentage of successful passes in the final third. Old-school managers just want to know if the boy can put the ball in the net. Defensive midfielders are judged on interceptions and the number of challenges won in the centre of the pitch.
The increasing influence of analysts, young men who have no experience of scouting or recruiting players, has meant the end of the road for good football men such as Mel Johnson. He was the scout who recommended Liverpool sign talented young winger Jordon Ibe from Wycombe but was sacked, shamefully, in November 2014. Former academy director Frank McParland has also left.
Instead a new breed sits in air-conditioned offices, cutting up videos from matches all over the world and burying their heads in the stats. Edwards, along with his vast team of analysts, constantly monitors the opposition, providing detail about playing positions, style, routines, set-pieces and other important matchday information.
They profile players based on their last 10-20 appearances, gathering information and helping Rodgers build a presentation for his players before matches that was usually a maximum of 10 pages on each team. It is a useful, but far from infallible, tool.
Edwards, who is in his late thirties, began his career as part of the video analysis team at Portsmouth before leaving to work with Harry Redknapp again when he became Tottenham manager.
There, Edwards struck up a relationship with Ian Graham at Decision Technology, a data firm collecting statistics on players from all over the world.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy paid Decision Technology a fortune each season for their services, trusting their analysis and using Edwards, in his newly created role as head of performance analysis, to make sense of it all.
Edwards was head-hunted by Damien Comolli when the Frenchman became director of football at Liverpool, turning down an increased salary of £250,000 a year at White Hart Lane to join the Anfield revolution. Levy was distraught.
Since then he has emerged as a senior figure at Liverpool, empowered by FSG to make the call on big transfer targets after gaining their trust since his arrival in 2011.
His relationship with Rodgers deteriorated shortly after the former Liverpool manager signed a contract worth £6m a year just a week after Liverpool finished within two points of claiming the Barclays Premier League title.
They clashed over transfer strategy, although Rodgers went on record to insist that he always had the final say over the recruitment of players earmarked for the first-team squad.
In the end, Edwards had his number.
[/article]
People always have doubts about analysts over 'football people' but its the future of the game.
Theo Epstein ended two of the longest sporting droughts taking the Red Sox and Cubs to World Series titles - largely through data driven decisions.
Edwards, may or may not be the right person, but he's the right type for this role.
Theo Epstein ended two of the longest sporting droughts taking the Red Sox and Cubs to World Series titles - largely through data driven decisions.
Edwards, may or may not be the right person, but he's the right type for this role.
Fuck me. When FSG invest their vast wealth, they do it for fundamental "finance people" reasons. They will only use statistics to confirm their previous opinion. To do it back to front, and use statistics to identify investments/players, then back it up with confirmation bias / scouting after the fact, well it's the most retarded strategy you can have. You'd get fired if you used statistics like that in finance.
I hope Klopp comes up with transfers himself, then uses this fucking douchebag to merely tell him that yes, he appears to be right. If it's the other way round, I promise you, we're doomed.
I hope Klopp comes up with transfers himself, then uses this fucking douchebag to merely tell him that yes, he appears to be right. If it's the other way round, I promise you, we're doomed.
Ah, dantes. Don't ever change
A smarter way to use statistics would be to pay twitter for direct access to their servers. Then analyse the tweets of football fans in relation to every player. It would be better than sending a single scout, you'd have billions of scouts, all around the world. You could even engaging in a bit of spoofing, and send billions of fake positive tweets about Lucas, forcing someone to take notice and buy him.
This is the football equivalent of the monkeys with typewriters / shakespeare theorem isn't it ?
Let me put it this way. Michael Edwards comes to you with a report saying Hector Smith has pass completion rate of 94%. We should buy him. On the other hand you have 2.3 million tweets of people saying he's a fucking cunt, he should die, he's shit, and so forth. Tell me, would you buy the Smith?
Michael Edwards wouldn't have gotten the job if he thought pass completiom rate was a statistic to base a decision on
You see, you say that because that statistic is of no value. But when you have a more complicated set of statistics, you think the complexity adds value. It's an illusion. The complexity doesn't really trouble me, it's still just nursery school level mathematics to me, so you should take my word for it being of no value.
It's an interesting appointment. I quite like the promotion from within aspect, based on the assumption that he should be able to hit the ground running. I do have some reservations about his experience level and we have no clear idea which successes or failures he has backed in the past.
At the very least, whether "Eddie" is the right guy or not (I hope he is), I am pleased that we are once again looking at this type of structure.
At the very least, whether "Eddie" is the right guy or not (I hope he is), I am pleased that we are once again looking at this type of structure.
Let me give you an example. Football today is different, it's more heavily weighted to false strikers and pressing. So what are you going to do? If you use statistics from the last few years, that won't be a large enough sample size to be significant. If you use statistics from the last twenty years, then you're going to have a big sample, but one that is irrelevant to your problem today.
You can use 100 years of past data to make good decisions over the next 100 years. Then the statistics and numbers will play out. But if you use 100 years of data to try and make better decision over the next 2 or 3 years, you may as well roll the dice. Just because something happened 80% of times over a century, I promise you it will not happen 80% of times in the immediate future. It could happen 0% of times, or 10%. So this is why statistics have no value. You need to use fundamental physical data, in other words your eyes, to predict the % of times something will happen today, here and now.
You can use 100 years of past data to make good decisions over the next 100 years. Then the statistics and numbers will play out. But if you use 100 years of data to try and make better decision over the next 2 or 3 years, you may as well roll the dice. Just because something happened 80% of times over a century, I promise you it will not happen 80% of times in the immediate future. It could happen 0% of times, or 10%. So this is why statistics have no value. You need to use fundamental physical data, in other words your eyes, to predict the % of times something will happen today, here and now.
Speaking ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League clash with Watford on Sunday, Klopp believes the 37-year-old is the perfect man for the position.
“This decision is hugely positive for us and it will make us better and stronger in managing the process of building and retaining playing talent all age groups,” Klopp said.
“Development is so important and it makes sense to have a position, within the football structure specifically, that focuses on where we can improve.
“It’s no secret I like the concept of a sporting director and having worked under this model previously I have found it to be nothing but positive and forward thinking.
“Michael is absolutely the right person for this. He has the knowledge, expertise and personality to flourish in the role and I was delighted when he told me he would be accepting the position.
“Importantly, he also has a fantastic team of people around him, who have all played a significant role in putting together the talent we currently have in the first team, development squad and at even younger age levels.”
Edwards started his career at Liverpool as head of analytics back in November 2011, before being promoted to technical director last year.
He has admitted his pride at his new role, saying:
“I’ve been proud to be part of the football operations structure here at Liverpool and it’s a great honour to be asked to lead it going forward, in this new role of sporting director.
“We have a brilliant team of people who all make a huge contribution to the process of player transfers and retention, together with recruitment for the senior team, development squad and our Academy. Jurgen’s belief and confidence in what we have done is also welcomed and was a big factor in me making the decision to accept this position.
“It’s critical that we are always focused on development and improvement across all areas of the football operation.
It’s an exciting challenge to be tasked with the responsibility of reviewing our practices and then implementing positive changes as and when they are needed. I know I’ll be supported by a brilliant group of people while doing this.”
“This decision is hugely positive for us and it will make us better and stronger in managing the process of building and retaining playing talent all age groups,” Klopp said.
“Development is so important and it makes sense to have a position, within the football structure specifically, that focuses on where we can improve.
“It’s no secret I like the concept of a sporting director and having worked under this model previously I have found it to be nothing but positive and forward thinking.
“Michael is absolutely the right person for this. He has the knowledge, expertise and personality to flourish in the role and I was delighted when he told me he would be accepting the position.
“Importantly, he also has a fantastic team of people around him, who have all played a significant role in putting together the talent we currently have in the first team, development squad and at even younger age levels.”
Edwards started his career at Liverpool as head of analytics back in November 2011, before being promoted to technical director last year.
He has admitted his pride at his new role, saying:
“I’ve been proud to be part of the football operations structure here at Liverpool and it’s a great honour to be asked to lead it going forward, in this new role of sporting director.
“We have a brilliant team of people who all make a huge contribution to the process of player transfers and retention, together with recruitment for the senior team, development squad and our Academy. Jurgen’s belief and confidence in what we have done is also welcomed and was a big factor in me making the decision to accept this position.
“It’s critical that we are always focused on development and improvement across all areas of the football operation.
It’s an exciting challenge to be tasked with the responsibility of reviewing our practices and then implementing positive changes as and when they are needed. I know I’ll be supported by a brilliant group of people while doing this.”
Am I the only one a little concerned that a 37 year old will be negotiating transfers?
I know he's not exactly a baby, but top level contract negotiations are a chess game, & the skills are honed over time & experience is massive.
There's always a chance this fella has been shadowing people negotiating for many years, & as such has a lot of experience, but if they're just putting him in the role cos he's good with numbers & analytics this could be a mistake.
I know he's not exactly a baby, but top level contract negotiations are a chess game, & the skills are honed over time & experience is massive.
There's always a chance this fella has been shadowing people negotiating for many years, & as such has a lot of experience, but if they're just putting him in the role cos he's good with numbers & analytics this could be a mistake.
That endorsement sounds like it was Klopp who hired him! Ha.
I doubt we would have given him the role if he wasnt ready. Didnt the Echo say yesterday that he took the lead in most of the negotiations regarding the deals we made this summer? We ended up with pretty impressive transfer window.
37? And earns £300,000 a year. Fuck me I feel old (and poorly renumerated).
Last transfer window was a decent one but not all its predecessors have been. If Klopp's happy with the appointment I'll give it a chance, but I hope we haven't saddled ourselves with Comolli Mk.2.
Every time I see this photo it drives me absolutely nuts ! Such an amateurish photo. Every pro should know that wide angle lenses distort horribly the closer you get to the margins and compensate for that. Preferably in this case by taking a few steps back and using a 50mm or 85mm lens and not the likely 16-35mm lens that was used. Infuriating !
Glad to get that off my chest. *goes back to surfing*
I don't see anything wrong with it, Ian Ayre has always had a fat head regardless
Every time I see this photo it drives me absolutely nuts ! Such an amateurish photo. Every pro should know that wide angle lenses distort horribly the closer you get to the margins and compensate for that. Preferably in this case by taking a few steps back and using a 50mm or 85mm lens and not the likely 16-35mm lens that was used. Infuriating !
Glad to get that off my chest. *goes back to surfing*
Every time I see this photo it drives me absolutely nuts ! Such an amateurish photo. Every pro should know that wide angle lenses distort horribly the closer you get to the margins and compensate for that. Preferably in this case by taking a few steps back and using a 50mm or 85mm lens and not the likely 16-35mm lens that was used. Infuriating !
Glad to get that off my chest. *goes back to surfing*
It's a John Powell shot I think, he normally knows better. I'm going to cut him some slack and suggest that this shot was impromptu as lens choice is not the only issue with it.
He's only replacing Ian Ayre
It's a ridiculous shot any pro should be embarrassed of taking. An iPhone could do better. And yes, a ton of issues from composition to perspective to distortion. Simply no excuse for a pro as no matter what lens he has on he should still be aware enough of it's strengths and weaknesses.
Me too. I was thinking that I still had a few months to land a job that pays 300k a year then I remembered that I turned 37 a few weeks ago.
Behave - Lucas doesn't need tweets for the world to know his wonder
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