• Premier League

Suarez exceeded Liverpool expectations

Former Liverpool director of football Damien Comolli says he was "surprised" by how prolific Luis Suarez became after moving to Anfield.

Comolli helped bring Suarez to Liverpool in January 2011 and the striker went on to score 82 goals in 133 games before leaving for Barcelona this summer.

Last season's Premier League runners-up are thought to have made a profit of more than 50 million on a player who also provided 53 assists after joining from Ajax for £22.7m pounds.

Luis Suarez proved a huge success during his time at Anfield © PA Photos

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"In terms of stats he overachieved - I never thought he'd score what he did," Comolli said. "I thought he'd score, but not that much, being honest. For all the rest, we were signing an incredible player who was undervalued by the market.

"I went to the meeting with Ajax and came out and called the owner in America and said, 'I've got this deal, it's more than we expected,' and he said, 'OK, but it's coming out of your budget next summer.'

"I said OK and we did it. I thought it was very important to do it."

Comolli, who previously worked as director of football at Tottenham, was speaking after taking part in a discussion at the Web Summit in Dublin on what importance statistics play in transfers.

He said that the idea of eyes, ears and numbers - borrowed from the NBA's San Antonio Spurs - served as his model for recruitment.

Referring to Suarez, he explained: "He'd had a great World Cup in 2010 [scoring three goals and reaching the semi-finals with Uruguay].

"We'd watched him since [his time at] Groningen, so we were aware of what he did, how he played, the talent, and so on. That was the 'eyes' part.

"We didn't have a lot of data on the Dutch league at the time, but we knew he'd scored 41 in 61 - 'numbers.'

"We tried to measure what goals in other leagues would be worth in the Premier League. It's not perfect but we felt a goal in Holland was worth one-tenth of a Premier League goal, so we felt he wouldn't get 41 in 61, but we were wrong - he got 31 in 33 games [last season].

"We looked at other factors - how and when he scored. Did he score when they were chasing the game or when they were 3-0 up? Did he get equalisers? Could you rely on him to score away from home? Did he only score against weak teams or against top teams?

"Did he create chances? Did he deliver assists? How did he play in the last third?

"Another question was personality. We needed personality up front, more enthusiasm, more work rate. Would he be a technical and emotional leader for the team at the front and give it that spark?

"When we looked at it, he gave us everything."

As Comolli explains, the importance of having a scout who knew the situation on the ground was crucial.

Spurs had looked set to sign Suarez but, like other clubs, they were unsure whether he would suit their system or be as productive in the Premier League and, when they did finally make a move, it was too late.

"[Liverpool's] chief scout heard that we could do the deal, that they [Ajax] wanted to sell him: 'ears'. We were the only ones to hear that," Comolli said. "We couldn't believe it and decided to move. We met Ajax, it took a while, but we did the deal."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd