What really happened between Jurgen Klopp and Michael Edwards before his 2022 Liverpool exit – report

The high-profile signing of forward Darwin Nunez in the summer of 2022 is widely cited as a key moment that demonstrated Jürgen Klopp’s increasing transfer power, potentially contributing to the departure of highly-rated Sporting Director Michael Edwards later that year.

While Michael Edwards officially stated his exit was planned after a decade and driven by a big believer in change, reports have suggested an underlying tension between Jurgen Klopp’s personal preference and the club’s established data-driven recruitment model.

Jurgen Klopp’s Darwin Nunez decision reportedly caused tension behind the scenes at Liverpool

James Pearce of The Athletic reveals that Klopp insisted on the £64m deal for Nunez despite opposition from the analytics department, which favoured other data-backed targets like Christopher Nkunku or Alexander Isak.

Former Liverpool Director of Research Ian Graham also recently revealed that while the data had ranked Nunez and Isak highly, Klopp ultimately chose Nunez, which caused frictions.

However, as per the report, there were no bust-ups as such and eventually both Edwards and Ward stepped down in the pretext of over exhaustion.

Replying to a question about whether there was a power struggle between Klopp and Edwards, Pearce said: “It’s certainly fair to say that with longevity and success, Klopp’s influence increased across a host of different areas, including recruitment.

“A good example would be the signing of Darwin Nunez from Benfica in the summer of 2022, which was predominantly pushed by Klopp. Liverpool’s former director of research Ian Graham has talked about how that wasn’t a data-driven decision. Christopher Nkunku (then at RB Leipzig) and Alexander Isak (then at Real Sociedad) were two of the alternative names put forward.

“There was friction at times, but no big bust-ups that I’m aware of. Both Edwards and Ward stepped down as sporting director because they felt exhausted after over a decade of service to Liverpool and needed a break.”

Jurgen Klopp may not be the best when it comes to player recruitment

Klopp’s judgement of players is not his strongest suite, as evident from previous instances as well.

It has been previously revealed by Ian Graham that the German was pushing to sign Julian Brandt over Mohamed Salah back in 2017 and the only reason that the Reds ended up with Salah is because it took a concerted effort from Edwards and Graham to convince Klopp.

Edwards and his team, on the other hand have built up a solid portfolio of successful data backed signings, gaining a reputation of being a one of the best football minds in the modern day.

The data genius returned to Liverpool in 2024, taking over as CEO of football for Liverpool owners FSG.

Him along with the new sporting director Richard Hughes were responsible for the record breaking transfer window Liverpool enjoyed this summer, spending near to half a billion pounds in signings on elite players including Alexander Isak.