How Liverpool Used Data to Sign Mo Salah, Allison, and Van Dijk | Dr Ian Graham
The High Performance Podcast
High Performance
4.8 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 12 December 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In football, we often obsess over the goals, the trophies, the star players. But for Dr Ian Graham, the real story sits in the unseen decisions and quiet calculations that shape everything a club becomes.
In this episode, Ian pulls back the curtain on Liverpool’s transformation, revealing how data challenged old assumptions and opened the door to one of the most successful periods in the club’s modern era. From recognising Mo Salah’s potential when others overlooked him to navigating internal battles over recruitment, Ian explains the thinking, the risk, and the conviction behind the signings that changed everything.
With clarity and humility, he reflects on the mistakes, the debates, and the culture that allowed bold choices to thrive, offering a rare look at the work behind Liverpool’s rise and the principles that still guide his approach to the game.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | signing mo was something you could get sacked for if it didn't work out where data helps is it gives you |
| 0:09.5 | something to weigh that Chelsea failure against you're about to hear from dr Ian grey and one of the |
| 0:16.8 | architects behind Liverpool's data revolution and one of the key figures who helped to change |
| 0:21.0 | the club's trajectory. And as Liverpool heads into a new era with so much noise around Mo Salah and |
| 0:26.7 | his future, this conversation just feels even more relevant. Ian's about to explain how Liverpool |
| 0:32.3 | saw in Mo what others missed. He breaks down why so many clubs were blinkered, how Juergen Klopp viewed him |
| 0:38.7 | differently, and why the data showed Salad's ceiling was higher than anyone realized. You'll also hear |
| 0:43.8 | the inside story on Brendan Rogers' reluctance to trust data and what that meant for the club. |
| 0:49.3 | Ian will talk through the mistakes, the signings that didn't land, and the decisions that reshape |
| 0:53.4 | Liverpool, including the battle to convince't land, and the decisions that reshape Liverpool, |
| 0:59.5 | including the battle to convince the hierarchy to break the world record to sign Virgil Van Dyke. |
| 1:03.7 | If you want to understand some of the forces that have shaped the last decade at Anfield, |
| 1:07.6 | this episode tells you what really happened behind the curtain. |
| 1:12.7 | Listen, before we start, please hit follow on Apple or Spotify. It means you'll get every episode as soon as it drops. It means we can grow the channel and it means we can attract |
| 1:17.0 | some incredible new guests. Let's get going then into an awesome conversation that changed the |
| 1:22.6 | way a Premier League club worked and lifted Liverpool from challengers to champions as we welcome Dr Ian Graham to high performance. |
| 1:35.5 | It was summer 2017 and again, you know, full credit to Juergen and it kind of shows what sort of a leader he is. |
| 1:43.6 | We were always |
| 1:44.5 | backroom staff and never said anything he was front of house and had he wanted to take full credit |
| 1:50.5 | for Moes signing we wouldn't have said anything we'd just be happy that the player succeeded but the |
| 1:56.0 | sort of person Yergan is he did give credit where he didn't have to. |
| 2:06.5 | And so his preference was Julian Brandt, who was attacking midfield at Levikusen. |
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