Jurgen Klopp had to be convinced to sign Mohamed Salah and wanted Liverpool alternative instead

Liverpool's former director of research has recalled how didn't particularly want to sign in 2017, but was open to being convinced about the merits of doing so.

Klopp, , was in fact keen on landing Julian Brandt, a German youngster who was playing for Bayer Leverkusen at the time.

However, Ian Graham, who was , was adamant that the Reds should move for Salah, who was 25 at the time and was coming off the back of a 19-goal season at Serie A club Roma.

"Jurgen's preferred option for that summer was Julian Brandt, who was a great player," Graham told . "Jurgen had obviously known him very well, coming from the Bundesliga, and knew the German market very well.

READ MORE:

READ MORE:

"We agreed that Brandt was a very good young player but not a standout in the same way that Mo was. From our data analysis point of view Mo was the best young wide forward in Europe, full stop.

"Roma were under pressure to sell because their finances were not in a good place, so we knew he was available for a good price. He played a forward and wide role that we needed to fill at the time, whereas Brandt was more of an attacking midfielder.

"It's to Jurgen's credit that he engaged in that debate in an honest way with his eyes open to say, 'OK, I'm open to be convinced, show me that Mo is better'."

This is, in fact, not a new revelation, as German football expert Raphael Honigstein recalled the situation back in 2017. “Michael Edwards (Liverpool's current chief executive, who was the Reds' sporting director at the time) had been getting a lot of criticism in Liverpool for some of the decisions they’ve made over the last few years,” Honigstein told the Totally Football Show podcast.

“This is one where Klopp has just stepped aside and said, ‘I didn’t really want Salah, but he convinced me to take him.’ They were going for Julian Brandt, who’s very talented, but it’s inconceivable to think what the season would have looked like if it had been Brandt instead of Salah, because Brandt has been OK but hasn’t turned into one of the best strikers overnight the way that Salah has.”

The decision to sign Salah over Brandt proved to be the right one, with the 32-year-old going on to score 243 goals and register 110 assists across 393 appearances for the Reds.

Brandt, meanwhile, ended up moving to Borussia Dortmund in 2019, where he has been primarily used as an attacking midfielder, scoring 44 goals and registering 60 assists in 252 appearances for the Bundesliga club.