Manchester United should study Liverpool’s rebuild in order to overcome self-inflicted wounds

Liverpool’s owners also had a blueprint of how to overhaul each crucial area of the club, but they needed a unifier: a proven winner who had the expertise and aura to thread the vision together. One of the biggest appeals for FSG was that Klopp had no intention of being a “one-man show,” encouraging the collaborative approach the club had put in place in 2012 and that had been rejected by Klopp’s predecessor, Brendan Rodgers.

The transfer committee derided during the Northern Irishman’s time at Anfield are now heralded as premier operators in the market. Michael Edwards, Liverpool’s sporting director, was previously portrayed as a spreadsheet-obsessed pariah but has turned down the advances of more than one super club.

Roberto Firmino traded the “flop” label for a tag of “world-class” and no matter where you look throughout the club, from the elevated processes at Melwood to the decision for a new combined first-team and academy base, Klopp’s fingerprints are visible.