Liverpool convinced a ‘modern-day great’ (in Jurgen Klopp’s words) to join them from Chelsea – here’s how they managed it.
Daniel Sturridge moved to Liverpool from Chelsea back in January 2013 as the Reds tried to build a side under Brendan Rodgers. The club were leaning more and more into data for transfers – and felt the striker fit the bill.
But he was a gamble. Sturridge wasn’t clicking at Chelsea, having moved there from Manchester City when he was younger. A season on loan at Bolton Wanderers was promising – but he’d never done it at the biggest level.
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Liverpool, though, needed more goals. They were incredibly reliant on Luis Suarez – almost entirely reliant, in fact – and decided to take a chance on Sturridge.
It immediately proved to be an inspired choice. Liverpool, who hadn’t competed for the title for four years, found themselves a proper goalscorer who bagged 10 times in 14 games over the second half of the season.
He’d go on to score even more in his first full season – 20 in all, with only Suarez scoring more in the Premier League.
Sturridge was held back by injuries, of course, but his talent was plain to see at Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp labelled him a ‘modern-day great’ on leaving the club in 2019 and that’s absolutely the skill level he had.
So how did a struggling Liverpool manage to get him?
Daniel Sturridge on why he joined Liverpool
Sturridge spoke to FourFourTwo recently where he explained how Liverpool convinced him to leave Chelsea. Essentially, it came down to the data.
“It was in how they relayed their plan to me of what they wanted to do and what they wanted to achieve,” he said. “They talked a lot about the statistics; the Moneyball type of thing. I think I was one of the first players, if not the first, that they’d signed with that in mind, which was all based on stats.
“Things such as conversion rates – they were like, ‘You don’t get many opportunities, but when you play, you score, and also this and this, and we’ve seen this other thing, too’. I was like, ‘This whole thing you’ve put up in front of me is blowing my mind a little bit’. I really liked the way they were thinking.
“The manager, Brendan Rodgers, was a forward-thinking, attacking, free-flowing coach as well, so it just made perfect sense, because I wasn’t playing every game prior to that.”
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