Behind the Badge is a new series the Official site is running, looking at some of our backroom team that generally nobody's heard of, nor know what they do.
We're starting with Mark Leyland, one of our performance analysts that collate info before, during and after games for the Boss to relay to the lads. He's also a massive Liverpool fan
I was going to add it to the thread I thought we had running on Buvac and Krawietz but I can't find it so maybe I imagined we had one.
11h ago
Behind the Badge: 'My dream? To play a small part in LFC winning a trophy'
Sam Williams
@SamWiIliams
Do you remember where you were just before 9pm on Thursday March 17, 2016?
The half-time whistle had just blown at Old Trafford. Seconds earlier, Philippe Coutinho had slalomed his way past Manchester Unitedâs Guillermo Varela before scooping the ball over David de Gea and into the Stretford End net.
A piece of breathtaking Brazilian brilliance had all but sealed Liverpoolâs place in the quarter-finals of the Europa League at the expense of their great rivals.
Chances are, wherever you were in the world, you were feeling pretty good. The section of visiting supporters at the opposite end of the ground to the scene of Coutinhoâs latest magic trick certainly were.
Celebratory bedlam had first given way to repeated âole, oleâ in homage to the goalscorer, and then the now-familiar strains of âThree Little Birdsâ.
For Mark Leyland, Liverpoolâs first-team post-match analyst and a lifelong Red, this represents an unforgettable and profound moment of professional pride.
âMy overriding memory of working here was at Old Trafford at half-time,â Leyland tells Liverpoolfc.com, as we sit down for this chat at Melwood.
âThe fans starting singing Bob Marley. Thatâs a moment Iâll never forget, because normally Iâd be in the training room at half-time with the manager but Harrison [Kingston, head of post-match analysis] had gone down.
âI was just like: âThis is just incredible, I canât believe Iâve got here. I canât believe Iâve arrived at this point.â
âI was sat in the gantry and when Harrison came back up I said âYou will not believe whatâs just happenedâ.
âI donât know [why that moment is so special]. It was just a moment of realisation, not on a personal level, but I know how proud my dad wouldâve been and how happy everyone wouldâve been that I was there, where Iâd always dreamed of being.
âFrom a young age I thought I could affect a game, a first-team performance, in some shape or form. And to actually be there, in a big game in the Europa League and weâre going through⌠it was just a moment of realisation that Iâve done really well. I was really proud of that moment.â
Wirral-born Leyland arrived at Liverpool from Burnley in the summer of 2013. Along with Kingston, he provides post-match analysis on first-team games to Liverpoolâs players and coaching staff.
When asked to describe a typical dayâs work at Melwood, the 31-year-old says there is no such thing.
âOur role varies game by game and scenario by scenario. There may be a feature of performance that theyâre [the coaches] particularly happy with or is an area of concern, so that could take up an hour or it could take up two weeks, depending on the project,â he explains.
âHarrison focuses more on team style presentations - anything to do with defensive shape, offensive patterns, transitions - whereas I deal with individual player performances.
âSo if thereâs an area of concern or a particularly good area of an individual, Iâd go through and find video examples of that to present to the coaching staff and players.
âWe do a lot of work in the background, so weâll database information, all relating to the managerâs philosophy in the case that someone comes to us and says âIâd like to see thisâ.
âWeâre always here, thereâs always one of us in the office if not both of us. We have players and coaching staff wandering in with ad hoc requests. Itâs difficult to say what every day entails, but weâre always active, always producing projects.â
Of the many rewarding moments that come with working for the club you love, Leyland finds the process of assisting individuals among the most satisfying - as shown in his recollection of the story behind Danny Ingsâ first Liverpool goal.
âSo, for example, Iâve got a really good relationship with Danny from our time at Burnley and weâve done a lot of work on his movement patterns,â he says.
âItâs something weâve worked on for years and years and then to see, for example, his goal against Norwich where he runs in behind - to see him time that to perfection and finish it, you sit there and think âIâve helped him achieve thatâ.
âEven though itâs all him, thereâs that little part of you that feels that. Itâs unbelievable.â
Leylandâs work never stops. He and Kingston travel home and away with the Reds and have a key role to play on matchdays - particularly at half-time, when their analysis is relayed to the players by JĂźrgen Klopp, via Peter Krawietz and Zeljko Buvac.
âWeâre there throughout the day and evening the night before in the hotel, so for any player requests about the opposition or our own style of play for that game, weâre there for them,â he continues.
âOn a matchday, we collect video through a number of different video angles, process them into laptops and make video examples during the game.
âA lot of them are team-based because of the short window you have at half-time. We maybe have two or three minutes to discuss the video clips, then three or four minutes to present to the players.
âWe present to Peter about two minutes before half-time. We select the clips that we think are most relevant, weâll then show that to Zeljko and JĂźrgen as they come in and then weâll present that on a big screen in the changing room.
âThe managerâs always the one who talks through it. Itâs always from the managerâs mouth, which is really powerful. The way he does it, the simplicity and efficiency with which he does it, is so powerful.
âWeâre there then after the game for any player requests, distribution of video to staff, immediate post-match analysis, then that leads into the next week. Itâs all very continual, itâs a process that never really ends.â
Weâve already discussed half-time at Old Trafford during last seasonâs run to the Europa League final. That was a joyous, almost life-affirming, experience for Leyland.
But what about four weeks later at Anfield, when all sane logic dictated that Liverpool were on their way out of the tournament having been shocked by Borussia Dortmundâs electrifying start to the second leg of their last-eight tie?
What did Leyland and Kingston put together to be presented in a deflated, despondent home dressing room at the break?
âBelieve it or not, that was one of the moments we didnât show any video at half-time,â he reveals.
âThe manager is unbelievably good at reading the situation at half-time. His decision-making is one of the things that I think stands him apart - no disrespect to other people Iâve worked with, but his decision-making and the way he relays information at half-time is so good.
âHeâs really clear, heâs obviously really passionate, but his knowledge of when to give information and when not to, of what to give and what not to, is just at a different level.
âHe sees everything and he understands every situation and every feeling the players are going through, so that was one situation where he decided that it was just time to talk to the players.
âTo be honest, it was a whirlwind, I canât remember what was said in that changing room with everything that happened afterwards!
âIâve never felt anything like that as a member of staff. Thatâs when you sit back in the changing room after the game and just think: âWhat has just happened? What have we just witnessed?ââ
When you have a family full of ardent Liverpool fans and a dad who counts three European Cup finals among the Reds games heâs been to, you donât really have a choice as to where your footballing loyalties lie.
Like most young Reds in the 1990s, Leyland grew up idolising Robbie Fowler - âWhat a player!â, he smiles - and his first taste of watching the Reds live was a Stan Collymore-inspired 7-0 Anfield thumping of Rochdale in January 1996.
That was the first match of âhundredsâ he went to as a fan - a list that also includes a certain game in Turkey, his attendance at which he owes to a man whose name many Reds will recognise.
âI was in Istanbul with my dad. My best friend, who I was best man for at his wedding a few years back, was actually in the Liverpool squad for European games - his nameâs Dave Raven,â Leyland says.
âHeâs a day older than me so Iâve grown up with him in school and he managed to get us tickets through his allocation with the club.â
From an early age, Leylandâs love of Liverpool and football in general went beyond ordinary fandom - and his interest in the statistical, analytical side of the game would eventually lead to him beginning his professional career across Stanley Park.
âI was around 14 or 15, and I knew I wasnât going to be a good footballer but I still studied football,â he explains.
âI watched it religiously, my dad was quite studious and I had a couple of friends who were clued up. This was at the start when a few stats were coming into the game, so we used to look at them and discuss them.
âI never thought it could be a career until I went back to John Moores to do my Masters [in sports and exercise sciences].
âWhen I was at uni I saw that clubs had links with universities, but I never really got involved with them during my undergraduate degree. When I went back to start my Masters that was the first thing I did.
âI said âIâd love to be an analyst and I want some experienceâ and they gave me that opportunity at Evertonâs academy.â
In the space of four years, Leyland rose from an internship to the position of head of development analysis in the Bluesâ youth set-up.
While he has nothing but fond memories of his time with Everton, Leyland always knew he wanted to make the step up to operating in a first-team environment.
That opportunity arose in the summer of 2012, when a position on Eddie Howeâs staff at Burnley, then in the Championship, became available.
An eventful season at Turf Moor ensued.
Leyland was thrust into a role as the Claretsâ sole analyst, producing live-match, opposition and post-match analysis all in a three-day turnaround - âI learned and developed so much in the first two or three months,â he recalls - before Howe left the club just a few months after Leylandâs arrival.
âIt was a bizarre situation because I got on with Eddie so well. I was just fortunate enough that the staff who came in, Sean Dyche and his team, were so good,â he says.
âThere were worries about whether you keep your job but they made it clear straight away that they wanted to work with everyone. They were outstanding.
âSo within a five to six-month period, Iâd got to work with two of the most highly-regarded footballing staff in the country, which for me was unbelievable.â
Just 12 months after his move to Turf Moor, Leyland applied for a vacancy that would see him move back to Liverpool - and this time, to the red half of the city.
Several interviews later, he had earned the chance to fulfil his childhood dream of signing for Liverpool Football Club.
âAlthough I absolutely loved it at Burnley, it was something I could never turn down - I would never have been able to live with myself if Iâd turned it down,â he says.
In the space of a year, Leyland had gone from working at Evertonâs academy to discussing individual performances with the likes of Steven Gerrard.
âAnyone who says donât meet your heroes has obviously never met Steven Gerrard!â he smiles.
âHeâs that influential and an incredible person. The first time I met him I just thought âI cannot believe Iâm going to be working with youâ.â
Leyland worked under Brendan Rodgers for a little over a year before the Northern Irishman's departure led to Kloppâs arrival, and Leylandâs first experience of operating with a non-British coaching team, in October 2015.
âWe were fortunate enough to go from one brilliant set of staff to another unbelievable set of staff,â he says.
âThe demands of British and continental coaching teams are pretty equal, itâs just the different approach people have.
âBrendan and his team had a very distinct style of play and he was very prescriptive with information. A lot of the players would come in and sit with the analysts and study performances before and after games.
âJĂźrgen and his coaching team - they like the players to feel from within, theyâre a bit less prescriptive and give out less information.
âThey take in a lot of information themselves and then distribute it how they deem fit. So the work we produce in the background doesnât change, itâs just the end product that changes in how itâs delivered to the players.
âSo a lot doesnât change, but everything changes at the same time, if that makes sense.
âItâs great to experience, you always want to develop and keep learning and get better in everything you do, so to have all these different experiences is brilliant. As analysts itâs pushed us on to another level.â
The respect Leyland has for Klopp, both professionally and personally, is evident throughout our conversation.
âThe manager is the figurehead to everything weâre trying to achieve. Everything that he does is with the right things in mind, and as a staff member thatâs all you can really ask for,â he states.
âHeâs always very honest with you, whether he wants more or less. Our relationship with him as a staff and a playing staff is unbelievable.
âYou see that on the field, and you see it in the hotel the night before the game - if you sit and chat with him, on a personal level heâs such a great character and then on a professional level heâs obviously incredibly talented.
âYou do get that feeling of âWe all want the same things, weâre all striving to be the bestâ and thatâs something he believes we can be. His belief filters down through everyone else, and youâre starting to see that in the confidence and attitude of everyone.â
Liverpoolâs performances so far this season are certainly indicative of Leylandâs assertion that the bossâ attitude has permeated into the mindset of his players.
This is perhaps demonstrated best in Leylandâs illuminating response to a query about the aftermath of the aforementioned, scarcely-believable defeat of Dortmund in April.
âThere was the period of 10 or 15 minutes where everyoneâs just high-fiving and hugging, and then afterwards⌠I think itâs underestimated on the outside just how much it [the game] means to players,â he replies.
âPeople on the outside think they care, but itâs so much more than that. The usual players will come and see us and say âCould I have affected that goal? In that situation could I have done this, could I have done that?â
âSo the same process happens after the game. You have players coming up to you and asking âCan I see that?â or âWhat are your thoughts on this?â and that doesnât change.
âThey obviously knew weâd not really won anything, so straight away they were back to learning, back to âWhat can we do better to avoid that happening again? We canât be 2-0 down at half-time to a side as good as Dortmund because we wonât win againâ.
âWeâd just gone through the most emotional rollercoaster you can in a football match, but then it was professional heads on, back to work.
âEven if you win a league or you win a cup, youâve got to go and do it again. The players are the most aware of that.â
Melwood is, to borrow a phrase from Klopp, Liverpoolâs âheadquarters of footballâ.
Itâs also Leylandâs office.
âItâs still a bit bizarre!â he admits, when asked how it feels to count Liverpool Football Club as his employer and the West Derby training ground as his place of work.
âI am a Liverpool fan, but Iâm not a Liverpool fan anymore - Iâm a Liverpool employee. It means so much more and you almost canât be a fan, you have to be objective, away from what you were as a fan.â
A broad grin then breaks out across Leylandâs face.
âBut thereâs times when I almost become a fan again, where I walk in and I look up at the European Cup and I think âI was there, I spent three, four months of my part-time uni wages to try to get to Istanbul just to see that moment, to see Stevie lift that trophyâ,â he adds.
âAnd the little moments, like sometimes youâll receive a text message from the manager. Itâll flash up on your phone and youâll think âThatâs the best manager in the world sending me a text, how has that happened?!â
âTheyâre the moments, the unique instances. Itâs not the moments you think, like when someone scores a goal at Anfield - itâs not then.
âItâs when you take time to sit back and reflect and think âWow, itâs been some journey over the last 10 yearsâ and hopefully itâs just starting.
âIâve had so much experience over the last year or so of going to finals and I just want to keep trying to be that small part in the process of winning a trophy. Thatâs my dream.
âIf someone wouldâve told me that as a kid, my mind would have been blown.
âTo be able to do that and see my dadâs face if I did that - that would be the best thing you could possibly imagine.â
http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/first-team/244214-behind-the-badge-my-dream-to-play-a-small-part-in-lfc-winning-a-trophy