Khan Honors Thesis (Spring 2022)

The influx of readily available sports data has transformed the landscape of recruitment analysis conducted in European soccer leagues. Clubs now have access to a repository of information that helps to monitor the status of current players and filter those they wish to recruit. Supplemented by extensive financial backing, the teams in the English Premier League have shifted from a local, more traditional approach to a focus on the acquisition of players in international markets. This paper analyzes the rapid effects of implementing a data-driven approach to recruitment and argues that the dominance of Liverpool in the EPL from 2017 to 2022 has stemmed from a superior focus in this data-driven recruitment compared to other clubs in the league, specifically Manchester United. Other teams have recently shifted their structures to model the modern, fast flow of data that the two European super clubs manage each season yet consistently fail to match either. Furthermore, this project establishes the feasible prospect of clubs prioritizing their staffing for data over other departments, including players.