Liverpool complete Man City swoop that could have huge impact on both clubs

Liverpool are set to appoint Laurie Shaw as their new chief scientist, with the Scot currently on gardening leave after leaving his role as director of football data at the City Football Group

Liverpool have reportedly poached Laurie Shaw from rivals Manchester City to become the club’s new chief scientist. Shaw joined the City Football Group (CFG) in February 2021, leaving his role as a research scientist and lecturer at Harvard University to start working in football.

The Scot was appointed head of AI at CFG, the multi-club model that owns stakes in a number of teams including City, Girona and Palermo, before becoming director of football data in September 2023.

However, the Liverpool Echo are reporting that he is now set to join Premier League rivals Liverpool after serving a period of gardening leave.

The report states that he is set to work specifically with Liverpool, although owners Fenway Sports Group do have stakes in a number of other sports teams around the world.

Shaw’s new role will see him work under Liverpool’s director of research Will Spearman, with the club’s data department widely viewed as one of the best in football.

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Dr Ian Graham spearheaded Liverpool’s analytics department after joining the club in 2012, with Spearman replacing him when he left in 2023. Liverpool’s use of data has been a huge part of their success in recent years and the addition of Shaw will come as a huge boost for the Reds.

Opening up about how analytics helped shape Liverpool’s success, Graham told The Athletic last year: “Mike Gordon, Michael Edwards, myself and the rest of the transfer committee always had the belief the process would pay off if we could get all the parts working properly.

“Our personalities were similar in not caring about the outside noise and sticking to a long-term view. The first guy I ever hired to my team, I told him ‘I’m not going to say this is a job for life; if we’re still here after two years we’re doing well’.

“I think at most clubs with those failures in the first few years, they would have gone in another direction. But Fenway knew the process was working.

“They could see that a department was being created which would give us an edge over other clubs in the future. It was just that the rest of the world couldn’t see it at that time.

“The typical experience of a data person going into a club back in the early 2010s was you come in with some bright ideas straight out of university and some old football guys think, ‘This is all rubbish; we’re not going to listen to this stuff’.

“There was resistance — and there was certainly resistance from Brendan [Rodgers]. Tough as that was, I knew it was a much better position to be in than at most clubs because I had buy-in from the owners and from Michael who was my direct manager.”

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