IMPACT OF PLAYERS TO THE TEAM:

LIVERPOOL UNDER KLOPP

STRATEGIC ANALYTICS: INSIGHTS FROM SPORTS

Project Report

Indian Institute of Management

Kozhikode
(31st October, 2020)

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Prof. Deepak Dhayanithy
Associate Professor
Anand Busam PGP/23/200
Mithileaswaran PGP/23/214
Mudit Yagnik PGP/23/216
Neha Negi PGP/23/217
Tushar Gupta PGP/23/242
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction .……………………………………………………………………………..….3
2. Liverpool and Klopp...……………………………………………………………………..4
a. Liverpool History………………………………………………………………..4
b. Jurgen Klopp………………………………..……………………………………4
3. Objective…………………………………………………………………………………………5
4. Data Gathering………………………………………………………………………………..5
a. Sources ..……………………………………………………………………………5
b. Data…………………………………………………………………………………..6
5. Data Analysis………………………………………………………………………………….9
a. Scatter Plot………………………………………………………………………..9
b. Regression………………………………………………………………………..10
6. Results…………………………………………………………………………………………..11
a. Scatter Plot- Defensive……………………………………………………….11
b. Scatter Plot- Offensive……………………………………………………….14
c. Linear Regression……………………………………………………………..17
7. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………20
8. References…………………………………………………………………………………….21
9. Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………21

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Introduction
The role of data analytics has been growing from the last two decades in every aspect of
our lives. Every business is into data analytics be it Media, Healthcare or Sports. 
Football was thought to be different to follow this trend until a few years ago. But in
major football leagues, early adopters of analytics couldn’t thank more of having a
competitive advantage that data analytics provided them over their peers. AZ Alkmaar,
Brentford and Liverpool are a few of the list of many fast-growing successful case
studies. In our view, if the clubs are not planning to invest in analytics then there is a
higher risk of being left behind. Gathering data alone is not going to help to have a
competitive edge; what’s more important is the ability to interpret it.
In the first wave, previously clubs used to limit the data to shots, goals, number of
corners, possession etc. This limited data has no value to the coaching staff or the
players.  Knowing facts like your team is conceding too many shorts or unable to gain
possession doesn’t provide any useful coaching insights.  The typical stats we see on TV
do not help teams win games. The second wave of football came in the form of on the
ball event data. Opta, the biggest supplier of this data, provides (X,Y) coordinates of
every pass, defence action and every shot of the ball. Opta is one of the several data
suppliers including Statsbomb, Wynscout. Several Companies and clubs collect data ,
analyse and draw insights. Coaches play a crucial role in the team performance. They
strive to focus on improving the team as a whole. Coaches fill a variety of roles in their
players’ lives, acting as everything from mentor to role model to substitute parent. These
roles carry significant responsibility, as the players will look to the coach for so much
more than just athletic instructions.

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Liverpool and Klopp
Liverpool History
Liverpool FC was founded in 1892 after the owner John Houlding had a dispute with the
Everton committee, the existing football club at Anfield. It went on to become one of the
most successful clubs in the history of football. It has won 19 League titles, 7 FA Cups, 8
League Cups-a record in itself and 15 FA Community Shields, at domestic level.
Internationally, the club has won 6 European Cups-highest amongst the English clubs,
3 UEFA Cups, 4  UEFA Super Cups and 1 FIFA Club World Cup. 
The club reached its zenith in the 1970s and 1980s under the leadership of Bill Shankly,
Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish. Problems started after the resignation of
Dalglish. Although Liverpool went on to win a few league titles, their performance
slumpened and could not match their erstwhile glory.
Jurgen Klopp
Klopp is German professional football manager and a former player who is the manager
of premier football club Liverpool. He is recognized as one of the best managers in the
world. Klopp made over 300 appearances as a player, starting and finishing his
professional career at FSV Mainz 05 in Germany's second tier. In the summer of 2008,
Klopp was appointed as manager of Borussia Dortmund and was tasked with rebuilding
a side that had finished 13th in the Bundesliga in 2007/08. On Thursday 8 October
2015, Liverpool announced Klopp as Brendan Rodgers' replacement at Anfield. He led
the Reds to the UEFA Europa League final in 2015/16 and the UEFA Champions League
final in 2017/18, although both matches ended in defeat. Klopp was back in the
Champions League final the following season, however, and this time guided his side to
a 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur. It was also an impressive domestic campaign for
Klopp's Reds, who finished a point behind champions Manchester City despite losing
only one Premier League match in the entire 2018/19 season. Klopp guided Liverpool to
their first Premier League title which was a much needed solace for the club and the
fans. The Reds triumphed in style, setting a new record for the earliest title success,
clinching victory with seven matches to spare, and equalling the 32 wins claimed by
Man City in 2017/18 and in 2018/19.

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We will be analyzing some attributes with the team data and their performances, by
plotting graphs and regression to see h0w the team progressed from its old state of
missing titles with inconsistency to the new state where they acquired right players, had
a total team mentality with heavy metal football with good consistency.

Objective

As part of our project, we have tried to analyse the performance of Liverpool and
whether it improved or worsened under the guidance of klopp, with him serving as
manager of the team. We have compared the performance before and after the transfer
of players happened to assess whether the strategy is working or not.
We looked upon the attributes in the performance of the players of the team and how
their performances were different over the years and how the teams were able to fare
due to their contribution and also the strategic shifts in the plays added by individual
contributions. We were able to compare the team with the league’s best and identify how
the performances were and where they stood on the whole as a team as well.

Data Gathering
Sources
The requirement of the data to be gathered was to find sources which has analysed the
performance of the players in the Premier League, especially team Liverpool. In order to
suggest a relationship and build a model, it was required to relate attributes with one
another keeping the source similar and reliable. We gathered data from
www.transfermarkt.com and www.whoscored.com.

www.transfermarkt.com
The website was founded in May 2000, by Matthias Seidel. It has footballing
information, such as scores, results, statistics, transfer news, and fixtures. It is one of the
largest websites after kicker.de in terms of data. Transfermarkt team, which consists of
over 50 soccer football enthusiasts from all over the world. In addition, the team

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consists of many dynamic moderators and data scouts, who ensure that Transfermarkt
has the largest player database worldwide and is the largest German-language football
portal.
All the transfers of players’ data is collected from this source.Below is the example of
Arrivals in 2019/20 into the Liverpool Club. 

www.whoscored.com
It is a unique website and one of the fastest growing in the sports industry, specializing
in the in-depth analysis of detailed football data. Provided with unique stats, it compiles
and creates comprehensive analysis on the major European divisions, as well as
providing data on over 500 leagues and 15,000 teams. It gives detailed statistics for the
top 5 leagues in Europe and more using Opta. Player ratings are based on each event
recorded in the game calculated live automatically using its own algorithms, which
comprise over 200 raw statistics. All events are valued based on a researched perception

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of the effect on the outcome of the match. Positive events are valued against negative
events.
We have gathered data of both offensive and defensive players and their statistics from
this website. We considered Liverpool’s Premier Leagues’ data across the past 5 years.
Below is the example of Liverpool Premier League 2019/20 Offensive and Defensive
data.

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Data
Offensive: The offensive strategy involves attacking attributes in football. These
attributes include goals scored, assists, key passes, shots per game, dribbled past,
clearances, blocks and own goals. The important factors studied by us are selected on
the basis of the maximum effect and complimentarity to the game.

Defensive: The defensive strategy involves defenses and tactical use of the field by the
players. This includes tackles, intercepts, fouls, offsides, clearances, dribbled past,
blocks and own goals. Out of these, the important factors according to us, for defense
are analysed and used to draw conclusions.

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Data Analysis

The data is collected and further this quantitative data is used for analysis and to
interpret the importance of transfers in the better performance of Liverpool as a team
while also as a strategy implied by Jurgen Klopp.

The methodology used to analyse the performance and the improvement depended on
the matrix identified as the performance of the players in the team, divided into the
players that continued playing and the new arrivals. A comparative analysis of the
contribution by the players of Liverpool and the top 5 players is done. A scatter plot is
plotted with dependent and independent variables used for each offensive and defensive
strategy. The variables are as follows:

Strategy Dependent Variable Independent Variable

Defensive Number of intersections Dribbled Past

Tackles Dribbled Past

Clearances Minutes

Offensive Dribbles Minutes

Key Passes Assists

Shots per game Total goals scored

Scatter Plot

In order to analyse the data, scatter plot of the dependent variables is done against the
independent variable found as the independent variable being responsible for being
important in acquiring the dependent variable. The two strategies implicate an
understanding of the performance of Liverpool players with the top 5 performers of the

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season. The data from 2015-2019 is plotted to generate a relation and implicate the
change in the performance of Liverpool as a team. A relation proving a better
performance of the new players can be implied to state that the choice of transfers into
the team proved worthy over the years. This shows how one variable is dependent on the
other and because every dot represents an individual data point and therefore makes the
interpretation easier. It is also required to initiate linear regression on the data and
achieve the association between the two.

Regression

Linear regression is used to predict the value of the dependent variable based on the
independent variable. In order to achieve the relationship, it is required to be checked
whether the independent variable causes the other variable so that the significant
association between the two can be achieved. As we have already plotted a scatterplot to
achieve a relationship, regression can be easily done. The data used for the regression is
further divided to compare the significance of the dependent variable by the
independent variable where the entire team is considered and another regression
without the new players in the team. The comparison between the two can implicate
betterment or decrease in performance or dependability on the independent variable for
the team. The output of linear regression states the change in the dependent variable
due to a single unit change in the independent variable. The output can be interpreted as
follows:

1. A positive relation states that there is a positive relation between the two variables,
i.e. with an increase in the independent variable, the dependent variable will also
increase.

2. A negative value states that there is a negative relation between the two variables,
i.e. with an increase in the independent variable, the dependent variable will decrease.

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Results
Scatter plot- Defensive

Tackles and Dribbled past

Fig.1 2015-2016 Fig.2 2016-2017

Fig.3 2017-2018 Fig.4 2018-2019

Fig.5 2019-2020
● There has been a clear transition in the decreased dribbled past from 2016-2017
to the following seasons where they have reduced.
● But in 2020, there was an increase in the stat of dribbled past

Interceptions and Dribbled past

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 Fig.6 2015-2016 Fig.7 2016-2017

Fig.8 2017-2018 Fig.9 2018-2019

Fig.10 2019-2020

● The interceptions have had increased contributions in terms of no of players

● It can be observed that 7 players have above 1.0 in 2019-20 and the improved
numbers compared to previous seasons

Clearances and Minutes

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 Fig.11 2015-2016 Fig.12 2016-2017

Fig.13 2017-2018 Fig.14 2018-2019

Fig.15 2019-2020

● The higher clearances from the players who play more matches which has
improved drastically in 18-19 and 19-20 seasons
● We can also see that players are fit and play more minutes than the previous
seasons in 18-19 and 19-20

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Scatter plot- Offensive

Shots per game and Total goals scored

Fig.16 2015-2016 Fig.17 2016-2017

Fig.18 2017-2018 Fig.19 2018-2019

Fig.20 2019-2020
● We can see that the shots from various players have increased overall in the last 2
seasons, where the goals have also gone significantly up from the first 3 seasons.
● Salah and Mane have significantly added up to the success of them

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Dribbles and Minutes

Fig.21 2015-2016 Fig.22 2016-2017

Fig.23 2017-2018 Fig.24 2018-2019

Fig.20 2019-2020

● The dribbles have been somewhat similar in the terms of year wise, but we can
see that there has been increased dribbling by players who play long in seasons of
18-19 and 19-20 compared to the scatters in 15-16 especially

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Key Passes and Assists

Fig.26 2015-2016 Fig.27 2016-2017

Fig.28 2017-2018 Fig.29 2018-2019

Fig.30 2019-2020

● There’s an evident increase in the conversion and increase of key passes to assists
in the years, which attributes to both the finishing as well as the passes provided
in crucial scoring areas have increased significantly over the seasons.
● We can see a lag in finishing in 17-18, which can be seen from the slump in the
graph

Linear Regression

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Defensive Strategy

Fig. 31 Regression Output of the team Fig. 32 Regression Output of the team
(defense 16-17) with the all players (defense 16-17) without transfers

Fig. 33 RO of the team (defense 18-19) Fig. 34 RO of the team (defense 18-19)
with the all players-Interception without transfers-Interception

Fig. 35 RO of the team (defense 18-19) Fig. 36 RO of the team (defense 18-19)
with the all players-Tackles without transfers-Tackles

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Offensive strategy

Fig. 37 RO of the team (offense 17-18) Fig. 38 RO of the team (offense 17-18)
with the all players-Goals without transfers-Goals

Fig. 39 RO of the team (offense 17-18) Fig. 40 RO of the team (offense 17-18)
with the all players-Assists without transfers-Assists

Fig. 41 RO of the team (offense 19-20) Fig. 42 RO of the team (offense 19-20)
with the all players-Goals without transfers-Goals

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Conclusion

The output of the scatterplot and regression can be interpreted as:

● Efficient dynamic change in the attack of the players as a collective effort from
the wing backs who have been essential in the attack with their key passes
● Increase in the goals attempted and scored by the forwards, with the adaptation
into the system
● Ensure that Klopp’s system was able to achieve its goal by the fitness of players
and their consistency in their attributes even though they didn't have a super star
in their team, even though Salah and Mane have provided crucial support they
were able to win with position wise stability and fitness for the team

The regression performed on the players with statistics of them one, playing as a team
while one without the new transfers into Liverpool is expected to fall below as the
number of players decreases and hence increasing the value by a small margin. Perhaps,
few of the results show a decrease in the value if the new players are removed, supports
the strategy of the coach, Jurgen Klopp, that the new transfers are chosen well hence
helping the team and gives an opportunity to design a model to make the critical
decision of choosing the transfers for gaining advantage through new talent.

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References
1. https://www.whoscored.com/Teams/26/Archive/England-Liverpool?
stageId=15151
2. https://www.transfermarkt.com/fc-liverpool/alletransfers/verein/31
3. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PLtMYf053w1EFMkTRctki
BGdbmRSruogoA_CLagWhek/edit#gid=0
4. http://www.stat.yale.edu/Courses/1997-98/101/linreg.htm
5. https://statistics.laerd.com/spss-tutorials/linear-regression-using-
spss-statistics.php

Appendix
A. The dataset used for the analysis can be found at:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PLtMYf053w1EFMkTRctkiBGdbmRSr
uogoA_CLagWhek/edit#gid=1038369453
B. The R code used for scatterplot, changing the variables as per offensive and
defensive strategy
a. scatterplot( Drb ~ Int | Pos , data = dat, smoother = TRUE, grid = FALSE,
frame = FALSE, regLine=FALSE)
b. scatterplot( Drb ~ Tack | Pos, data = dat, smoother = TRUE, grid =
FALSE, frame = FALSE, regLine=FALSE )
c. scatterplot( Clear ~ Mins | Pos, data = dat, smoother = TRUE, grid =
FALSE, frame = FALSE, regLine=FALSE )
C. The R code used for linear regression, changing the variables as per offensive and
defensive strategy
a. model1 <- lm(formula = goal ~ spg , data= ot3)
summary(model1)
b. model2 <- lm(formula = ass ~ kp , data= ot3)
summary(model2)
c. model3 <- lm(formula = Drb ~ min , data= ot3)
summary(model3)

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