Data-driven, not charisma: Liverpool s rejection of Amorim highlights the gap between the Reds and Manchester United!

. The model saw Liverpool sign Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah while passing on potential deals for Julian Brandt and Mario Gotze, two players Klopp initially favored.

The data also prompted Liverpool to make their best signing decision ever: hiring Klopp in 2015. The energetic German was one of the most respected managers as he guided Dortmund to back-to-back Bundesliga titles and a Champions League final in 2013, but his final season at Dortmund tarnished his reputation as his side finished seventh and lost 14 of 34 games.

However, Graham and his team can see that Dortmund was unlucky in many games and just did not seize the opportunity. Graham explained this to Klopp when he met him and the coach was impressed by how much he had watched Dortmund play. Graham responded that he hadn't watched a single game, just the numbers.

Huge goal difference

Liverpool's data-driven approach has not led to a perfect transfer policy, and while Salah and Mane have proven to be very good signings, there have been some big disappointments, such as the £64 million ($85 million) striker Darwin Nunez. But the Uruguayan, who has scored 40 goals in three seasons for the Reds, is the exception that has proven the rule over the past few years.

In the same period, United have had a long list of costly attacking failures, from Anthony to Jadon Sancho to Rasmus Hoylund. Meanwhile, the impressive list of forwards Liverpool have signed over the past decade dwarfs United's inconsistent forward group: Salah has scored 248 goals and provided 116 assists in 411 games; Mane has contributed 166 goals in 269 games. Roberto Firmino scored a total of 187 goals and provided assists in eight seasons; the late Diogo Jota averaged a goal or assist every two games; Luis Dias and Cody Gakpo played important roles in last season's title win.

Liverpool’s top five scorers in the past decade (Salah, Mane, Firmino, Jota and Dias) have scored a total of 434 goals in the Premier League. United's most prolific players during the same period (Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes, Anthony Martial, Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku) have scored a combined 268 goals, a difference of 166 goals.

The Fifteen-Year Problem

"I don't think this issue has been addressed since 2010," Wayne Rooney said last month when discussing United's poor attacking signings with former team-mate Rio Ferdinand. Rooney requested a transfer in 2010 after confronting Ferguson over the club's failure to sign replacements for Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez, both of whom left in 2009. He quickly changed his mind and signed a new contract, but he still feels he made the right points at the time and believes many fans who were against him at the time, partly because of his threats to join Manchester City, would now agree with him.

"Ever since we lost Ronaldo and Tevez, the club doesn't have a group of strikers who can win you games," he said. "That's Manchester United. This group of four players who can go and win you games. Think back to 2010 and you had Dimitar Berbatov on the bench. You thought Tevez was on the bench. You think 'I need to play well'. I don't think that issue has been solved since."

Liverpool spent a combined £300 million last summer to bring in Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ektiik and Alexander Isak, and they certainly can't be accused of underestimating their forwards. Wirtz and Isaac will still need time to adjust to Slott's team, but no one thinks they made a mistake in pursuing these players.

The accumulation of bad decisions

"Their (Liverpool) recruitment model is very good," former Manchester United defender Phil Jones told "Goal" via BetMGM. "Bringing in Jurgen Klopp, the passion he brings. You just watch him commanding from the touchline, a manager like that, you would die for him. They've done it right off the pitch and in everything else, including the academy."

Jones joined the team in 2011 when Manchester United were still Premier League champions and a Champions League finalist, but by the time of his last appearance in 2022, they were fading under Ralf Rangnick, scoring their lowest points tally in the Premier League era until last season. The former England defender is often asked what the biggest factor in the club's decline is, but he explains that question misses the point.

"The problem is not one thing, but the accumulation of all the little problems," he said. "To say 'we'll do that, we'll weigh that up at the end of the season, we'll worry about that in the next transfer window and we'll sort it out there'. It's the accumulation of all these decisions that may not have been bad decisions at the time, but they weren't good decisions either.

"It's a big responsibility to put on this shirt, but it's also rewarding. Hopefully they can start to build some momentum and regain some of that unique charm. But it will be a long time before we get back to the United we all know and love. "