Liverpool news: Jurgen Klopp set to enjoy more coaching time as club appoints sporting director

Liverpool have appointed Michael Edwards to the newly-created role of sporting director at Anfield.

The 37-year-old, who has previously held posts as head of analytics, director of technical performance and technical director, will govern the "club's overall football development".

Klopp is believed to have pushed for the creation of the position before Mike Gordon, Liverpool’s president, backed the promotion of Edwards - a key figure on the club’s much-criticised transfer committee.

Klopp is said to be enthusiastic about the prospect of working closely with Edwards, whose responsibilities are now expected to include the overseeing of all transfer business, thus granting Klopp his wish of more coaching time with players at Melwood, where Edwards is also likely to be based.

The German’s involvement in recruitment will remain apparent at the beginning and end of deals: deciding which areas of his team needs improving, then having the final say on who is bought and who is sold as well.

Edwards’s influence at Liverpool has quietly increased over the last 18 months, especially since the announcement in March of Ian Ayre’s departure as chief executive at the end of this season.

Edwards arrived at Anfield in 2011 as head of analytics in the same month as Damien Comolli, who became director of football strategy after being recommended to Fenway Sports Group by Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team.

In 2002 Beane had rejected John. W Henry’s approach to take him to the Boston Red Sox having impressed Liverpool’s principal owner through his use of sabermetrics to evaluate the value of players.

Though Comolli was sacked 17 months later largely because Andy Carroll – his record breaking signing - was considered by Fenway as a failure, Edwards remained and has since been awarded with two promotions, firstly to director of technical performance and then to technical director.

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Like Beane, Edwards has a background in statistics. He graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2002 with a degree in informatics, which literally translates as the science of processing data for storage and study. In 2003 he became the head of performance analysis at Portsmouth under Harry Redknapp, serving during his two terms at Fratton Park, before following him to Tottenham Hotspur in 2009.

During Brendan Rodgers's reign at Liverpool, it was said that the Northern Irish manager disagreed with Edwards over transfer targets. When Rodgers wanted to sign Christian Benteke from Aston Villa in the summer of 2015, Edwards motivation was with Hoffenheim's Roberto Firmino. Though both became Liverpool players, neither Benteke nor Rodgers lasted long, with Rodgers sacked a few months later and Benteke ultimately sold to Crystal Palace by Klopp.

Meanwhile, Firmino has since flourished under Klopp, establishing himself as Liverpool's first choice striker ahead of Daniel Sturridge.