Thiago Alcantara

[spud_gun]

The pass that he just cannoned off Manes arse (unintentionally) in the 50th min sums up his Liverpool career thus far.

[Buzzo]

The pass that he just cannoned off Manes arse (unintentionally) in the 50th min sums up his Liverpool career thus far.

[Scratch]

Wrong thread.

[Kenneth]

Played 12 league games with no goals and no assists, and at least three assists for opposition goals (cheap free kicks and losing possession). A poor man's Scott McTominay so far.

[Buzzo]

He might do all right in our team at full strength, but he looks miles away in the team as it stands. And he is getting worse week on week.

[danperkins]

I'm just gobsmacked at how poor he has been.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Played 12 league games with no goals and no assists, and at least three assists for opposition goals (cheap free kicks and losing possession). A poor man's Scott McTominay so far.

You expected goals and assists from a player like Thiago? Never been a thing with him tbh.

He got 17 league goals in 7 seasons with a full strength Bayern and 7 league goals in his time at Barca.


To be honest I am more worried why our regular midifelders that are at the club a long time are somehow managing to look like they only joined the club recently as well. They look like they are only settling into a new club, and they all look like they could not get a whiff of a goal either.

If we looked at all our senior midfield options this season other than Fabinho and Henderson, then I think it is fair to say peple would be wondering just what the fuss was about any of them.

Jones I do not include in that comment as I do not see him as an established senior player yet because would not be fair to lump the same expectations on a 20 year old midfielder in his first proper season . But the rest are either playing sub par or constantly out injured.

[Maxiedge]

I really think ideally Klopp would have played Milner and Gini as holding with Thiago a more advanced role yesterday but once again we are struck down by an injury (Milner)

[BobTheCharmer]

Must be on big wages. Reckon any chance klopp cuts his losses in the summer? I'd love to see him play in a strong team, having a full pre season and see what he can do with a crowd behind him.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Must be on big wages. Reckon any chance klopp cuts his losses in the summer? I'd love to see him play in a strong team, having a full pre season and see what he can do with a crowd behind him.

Not unless the player wanted out I reckon.

And even then, him leaving would leave us being down both him and Wijnaldum and still with the issue of having the likes of Keita and Chamberlain on the books who cannot seem to string a run of games together plus an aging Milner.

We do look like we need some fresh blood in midfield regardless this summer as we generally have too many of our back up players unavailable when need them.

[danperkins]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Thiago dropped for the next game and maybe Keita/Shaq or Ox getting a start. We need to mix things up and we certainly need a midfield that moves the ball around quickly as Sheff United are absolutely going to park a bus. I would like to see Klopp trying something new in this game.

[Doc_Piptorious]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Thiago dropped for the next game and maybe Keita/Shaq or Ox getting a start. We need to mix things up and we certainly need a midfield that moves the ball around quickly as Sheff United are absolutely going to park a bus. I would like to see Klopp trying something new in this game.

You think?


Against the us of last season or even earlier this season then I would say yes.

But not so sure that they will park it fully at the weekend. I have a feeling they will try to press us and be physical with us if we do not put them on the back foot early on. The fear factor has waned in recent weeks and you can see teams getting stuck into us more than they tried to last season.

Last season the bus was parked to try to keep the core down and on the off chance that a team might get a point from us. Since Xmas it feels like teams play us expecting a point and are hoping for the chance of all three.

Plus this game is a free hit for them. They go at us and lose, and it will be "well it was to be expected".

If I was managing their team I would be looking to find out if we are a mentally suspect as we appear to be of late and trying to keep it at 0-0 for as long as possible or trying to nick a lead to see if we go into leaving gaps mode again.

We should have too much, even with the players we have out, to beat a team that has only 2 wins and a draw at home in the league all season, but we need to slap them down early in the game and put them to the sword and not find ourselves 70 minutes into the game and still on level terms.

[danperkins]

You think?


Against the us of last season or even earlier this season then I would say yes.

But not so sure that they will park it fully at the weekend. I have a feeling they will try to press us and be physical with us if we do not put them on the back foot early on. The fear factor has waned in recent weeks and you can see teams getting stuck into us more than they tried to last season.

Last season the bus was parked to try to keep the core down and on the off chance that a team might get a point from us. Since Xmas it feels like teams play us expecting a point and are hoping for the chance of all three.

Plus this game is a free hit for them. They go at us and lose, and it will be "well it was to be expected".

If I was managing their team I would be looking to find out if we are a mentally suspect as we appear to be of late and trying to keep it at 0-0 for as long as possible or trying to nick a lead to see if we go into leaving gaps mode again.

We should have too much, even with the players we have out, to beat a team that has only 2 wins and a draw at home in the league all season, but we need to slap them down early in the game and put them to the sword and not find ourselves 70 minutes into the game and still on level terms.

I think they will do exactly what everyone else is doing, let us have possession, drive us wide being confident that a packed box with big defenders will clear the ball. They don't have the pace to counter attack so maybe set pieces is where they'll feel they are dangerous.

no doubts they will press us and get stuck in. I think it's time to shake things up, try a different formation, setup, personnel kinda thing. Also I don't think a free hit exist for a team that are bottom of the table and desperately need to get any points they can. They'll fighting tooth and nail and may see this as one of the best opportunities to beat LFC in our current state.

[Doc_Piptorious]

I think they will do exactly what everyone else is doing, let us have possession, drive us wide being confident that a packed box with big defenders will clear the ball. They don't have the pace to counter attack so maybe set pieces is where they'll feel they are dangerous.

no doubts they will press us and get stuck in. I think it's time to shake things up, try a different formation, setup, personnel kinda thing. Also I don't think a free hit exist for a team that are bottom of the table and desperately need to get any points they can. They'll fighting tooth and nail and may see this as one of the best opportunities to beat LFC in our current state.

The gaps we are leaving at times in front of the back four and the way we keep standing off runners is sort of taking away the need for a lot of pace to hurt us. Running hard in a straight line through our cetre seems to be enough to cause us problems at times, and the way our full backs are at times following the ball and not the man at times is a bit of a worry.

It happened a pile of times against Leipzig and thankfully they were not on form at all up front or on their left flank otherwise it may have been a harder batle for us, and it happened a good few times against Everton as well.

If Fab, Keta and Jota are fully fit, I would be starting Fab, Thiago and Keita in the centre (maybe a bit harsh on Jones but he would be the first midfielder I would sub into the game) and I would have Bobby on the bench with Jota starting in the middle up front but with him and Salah told to swap roles at will.

Jota makes lovely diagonal runs and he makes lovely runs across the box so would have Naby and Thiago primed to look for him all game long, and let Salah/Mane gain a bit of room to cut into thanks to Jota's movement and pace drawing defenders to him.

Backline would be Alisson, TAA, Robertson and two from Kabak/Phillips/Davies

[danperkins]

The gaps we are leaving at times in front of the back four and the way we keep standing off runners is sort of taking away the need for a lot of pace to hurt us. Running hard in a straight line through our cetre seems to be enough to cause us problems at times, and the way our full backs are at times following the ball and not the man at times is a bit of a worry.

It happened a pile of times against Leipzig and thankfully they were not on form at all up front or on their left flank otherwise it may have been a harder batle for us, and it happened a good few times against Everton as well.

If Fab, Keta and Jota are fully fit, I would be starting Fab, Thiago and Keita in the centre (maybe a bit harsh on Jones but he would be the first midfielder I would sub into the game) and I would have Bobby on the bench with Jota starting in the middle up front but with him and Salah told to swap roles at will.

Jota makes lovely diagonal runs and he makes lovely runs across the box so would have Naby and Thiago primed to look for him all game long, and let Salah/Mane gain a bit of room to cut into thanks to Jota's movement and pace drawing defenders to him.

Backline would be Alisson, TAA, Robertson and two from Kabak/Phillips/Davies

agree with all of this. Doubt Jota or Fab will be back for this or anywhere near fit but IMO Kabak/Philips will and should be the current backline, the midfield is up for debate but it has been a **** show for months now so maybe time to try something different.