With Liverpool securing the Premier League title considered to be just a matter of time, the Financial Times yesterday provided an in depth analysis of the factors underlying the club's success.
According to the Pink 'Un, this was a case of the manager making a difference. Jurgen Klopp came to Liverpool with a clear plan and when it hit obstacles he adjusted it. After his pressing game tired players out and led to inconsistent results, he went for a style of possession football that conserved energy and protected players.
There are lots of inefficiencies in football but FT sports correspondent Murhad Ahmed identifies two efficiencies at Anfield. First, the team is ruthlessly efficient in the sense that it often wins matches by a single goal. Second, according to football analyst Omar Chaudhari, 'Football is an efficient market, but there are inefficiencies in that good players will end up at bad teams occasionally. If you know that, and no one else is looking in the same place, you will find value.'
That is possible because the owners have insisted on a data-driven approach to the football market. In particular, Liverpool have done well at taking talented players from bottom half Premier League teams such as Southampton.
Good long-term ownership is clearly a key variable: just look at what has happened to Arsenal under 'Silent' Stan Kroenke. Liverpool have been able to assemble a good team while staying within financial fair play regulations unlike Manchester City (who emphatically deny that they have broken the rules).
Overall spending on players is supposed to the best indicator of league performance, but Liverpool spend less than the two Manchester clubs showing that they are punching above their weight.
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