Review of Liverpool's transfer strategy

Brendan Rodgers

Liverpool did not make any addition to their squad in the January transfer window which has caused a lot of furore on the social media. Given the fact that recently Liverpool just had 14-15 fit first team players, the inability to add to the squad has been seen as a matter of concern among the fan base. The transfer window does not take away anything from the fact that so far the club has had a very good season so far.

After the fiasco in last summer’s transfer window where the owner of the club John W. Henry had to issue an open letter justifying the signings he had made, the transfer committee was put into place.

The transfer committee consisted of the manager, scouts and data analysts. The committee does two main tasks – identify players from across the nations and sets the value for each player. After which the manager and the senior management choose the players they need and negotiate with the other clubs.

The signings so far

The first part has been where the committee has shown its worth. In last January’s window, the likes of Coutinho and Sturridge were identified by the committee, both of whom had not proven themselves at the big stage. They turned out to be the probably the best signings the club has made in the last few years.

Looking at the summer signings only Mignolet and Sakho have turned out to be good signings, with Mignolet having a dip in his form in the last few weeks. The other signings like Aspas, Alberto and Ilori have hardly contributed to the first team.

Alberto and Ilori could be looked as players for the future. Aspas however has struggled to adapt to the English league. The manager hasn’t given him enough game time after his injury. Toure as a squad player has been quite decent with patches of brilliance and some shocking games. Cissokho and Moses (both on loan) have been quite poor.

Scouting and Negotiations

Other than the signings the club went after the likes of Costa, Mkhitaryan and Willian in the summer. Costa has been in scintillating form this season. Mkhitaryan and Willian have shown their talent as well with Willian adapating to the premier league.

In the January transfer window the club went after Salah and Konoplyanka but were unsuccessful in their pursuit due to varying reasons. There might have been plenty of other players which the committee must have identified which did not appear in the media.

From the evidence of the last 3 windows, it seems the committee is doing a good job in identifying the right set of players. The evaluation of the players is something which has been a point of discussion.

The club has had a strict policy of not overpaying for players after the Carroll and Downing signings. There seems to be a gap between the value of the players set by the committee and the market price of the player. As per media reports Liverpool fell short by a few million pounds while bidding for Salah and Willian.

Criticism

The negotiations aspect has been something that has come under immense criticism from the fans. The club has been unsuccessful during the negotiations over the last two windows with several players mentioned before. Also there were reports that Liverpool spoke to the wrong agent during the Aspas deal. All of this doesn’t help given how rapidly news spreads these days.

The fact that Liverpool went almost into the last hour before the deadline and yet were unsuccessful reflected poorly on the transfer strategy. Ideally backup options should have been identified and pursued before. The Konoplyanka signing was never going to be an easy one, knowing this, negotiations should have started earlier.

The positions which needed strengthening and the types of players that have been brought in have also been suspect at times. For example, Alberto who has shown good technique in his limited appearances has hardly been used as a player who comes off the bench to create an impact.

It can be argued that the manager has been trying to give him time to adapt. Also considering the defensive woes the club has at the moment, it is not the wisest of decisions to send Ilori out on loan.

The way forward

The club has to review into why the transfer season has been unsuccessful. It needs to plug in the gaps. The possible solutions could be having a Director of Football who handles the negotiations but has a good footballing brain , better planning of which players to target and also more pragmatic evaluations of players by the transfer committee.

Given the huge revenue available when you play in the Champions League, the race for fourth is of absolute importance for Liverpool. Never before in recent years has the club been so close to the top of the table. If the club doesn’t manage to sort out its transfers, the chance for being a regular Champions League team could soon get away from Liverpool.