WHEN Jurgen Klopp announced he would not be signing a left-back, despite Alberto Moreno’s well-documented headless chicken routine, people thought he’d lost his marbles.
But six months on and it turns out the German ace has in fact pulled off one of the greatest tactical masterstrokes in recent Premier League history.
Klopp installed versatile midfielder James Milner as a stand-in left-back… and he’s done such a stellar job, that he is still holding onto that position with ease.
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In fact, according to the numbers from the CIES Football Observatory, Milner is the second-best full-back – not just left-back – in all of Europe.
Crunching the numbers across the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 there is just one defender doing a better job… Alex Sandro at Juventus.
Milner earns an overall rating - based on a host of stats such as tackling and passing - of 88, just one behind Sandro's impressive 89.
To put it in perspective, Milner is level with arguably the best left-back on the planet - Bayern Munich's Austrian star David Alaba.
Not just that, the Englishman - who started his career as a flying right winger, before slowly making his way to left-back via central midfield - is rated higher than stars such as Philipp Lahm and in-form Premier League duo Marcos Alonso and Danny Rose.
Bayern veteran Lahm gets a rating of 86, while Chelsea's Alonso and Tottenham's Rose earn a superb 87.
The only other two players to reach that level are former Blues outcast Filipe Luis - now at Atletico Madrid - and Napoli's Faouzi Ghofulam.
A couple of other Prem stars made the top 20 full-backs across Europe's Big Five leagues - and they're as intriguing as Milner...
First of all, Manchester United's stand-in right-back Antonio Valencia comes in at No13 with a rating of 84.
Not far behind is Middlesbrough's George Friend, who comes in 16th ahead of a host of European giants.
In other positions, Manuel Neuer must share the best goalkeeper title with St-Etienne man Stephane Ruffier and Yoann Cardinale of Nice on an 84 rating.
The Premier League's top entry is Stoke ace Lee Grant on 83, with Thibaut Courtois next back on 81.
Of Europe's top centre-backs, Mats Hummels (88) comes out on top ahead of Giorgio Chiellini and Javi Martinez (both 87), with Nicolas Otamendi the top-listed Prem star on 86.
Across the midfield positions, Paul Pogba comes in joint top with a sky-high 90 ratings - level with Bayern's Thiago Alcantara, while Premier League players such as Ander Herrera, Kevin De Bruyne and Philippe Coutinho (all 89) rate very highly.
Amongst the forwards, Cristiano Ronaldo unsurprisingly scores highest with an overall best of 94, ahead of Lionel Messi and 93.
The Prem's top striker sees Sergio Aguero rate fifth on 91 - behind former Man City team-mate Edin Dzeko on 92.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic ranked highly in 6th - level with Luis Suarez and ahead of La Liga stars Gareth Bale and Neymar.
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