Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre has been explaining how the Merseysiders transfer policy now operates since they were bought out by their American owners. He told Sports Illustrated: "We were very pleased with the most recent window in January with Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge. It's a combination of skills and people and processes that bring us to what we're trying to achieve.

"I think the fundamental shift particularly around player acquisitions and disposals was that we took the view that it needs to be more of a science. Your biggest expenditure line can't be the whim of any individual.

"What we believe, and we continue to follow, is you need many people involved in the process. That doesn't mean somebody else is picking the team for Brendan (Rodgers). But Brendan needs to set out with his team of people which positions we want to fill and what the key targets would be for that."

Ayre added: "He has a team of people that go out and do an inordinate amount of analysis work to establish who are the best players in that position.

"It's a combination of old-school scouting and watching players - and that's Brendan, his assistants, our scouts - with statistical analysis of players across Europe and the rest of the world.

"By bringing those two processes together, you get a much more educated view of who you should and shouldn't be buying. And perhaps as fundamentally, how much you should be paying and the structure to those contracts.

"I think we've had relatively good success since we deployed that methodology. We're getting better all the time. Just as you think our football is getting better, our transfer activity is getting better."