Thiago Alcantara

[fabinho]

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.

The fact that we would have to rely on players made of matchsticks to pull us out of this slump is truly depressing.

[BobTheCharmer]

Thiago it's time to stand up and be counted.

[Doc_Piptorious]

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.

Would take a 75% sharp Fab and a 75% sharp Jota over a misfiring maybe overplayed Wijnaldum and an out of form Bobby tbh.


Pretty sure both Fab and Jota are back in full training, so would be more a case of them needing some game time to get sharp.

Even if they were only up to playing 70 to 75 mins I would play them.

[danperkins]

Would take a 75% sharp Fab and a 75% sharp Jota over a misfiring maybe overplayed Wijnaldum and an out of form Bobby tbh.


Pretty sure both Fab and Jota are back in full training, so would be more a case of them needing some game time to get sharp.

Even if they were only up to playing 70 to 75 mins I would play them.

[Tribute]

Gets a bad wrap from some on here as ‘not living up to the hype from Bayern’ but he’s being asked to do a different role in an injury-savaged team... and putting the boot in when he’s clearly not that type of player. He’s being asked to be a Scholesy (and unfortunately he tackles like him)...

For me, he’s doing what is asked of him - he’s been decent, not great or awesome. But decent at breaking up play and winning the ball back plus he continues to make more successful passes than those around him in the middle - same last night with 65 passes compared to Gini and Jones’s 42 and 40.

We won’t see the best of him until Hendo and Fab are alongside him and we have a solid back four again. He’s by no means our worst outfield player.. Trent and Robbo have both had absolutely stinkers before last night... and he’s still bedding in. Dodgy tackles aside, he’s been decent in recent games.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Gets a bad wrap from some on here as ‘not living up to the hype from Bayern’ but he’s being asked to do a different role in an injury-savaged team... and putting the boot in when he’s clearly not that type of player. He’s being asked to be a Scholesy (and unfortunately he tackles like him)...

For me, he’s doing what is asked of him - he’s been decent, not great or awesome. But decent at breaking up play and winning the ball back plus he continues to make more successful passes than those around him in the middle - same last night with 65 passes compared to Gini and Jones’s 42 and 40.

We won’t see the best of him until Hendo and Fab are alongside him and we have a solid back four again. He’s by no means our worst outfield player.. Trent and Robbo have both had absolutely stinkers before last night... and he’s still bedding in. Dodgy tackles aside, he’s been decent in recent games.

He was good last night, just not flashy. He constantly knitted play together and he was on the ball more than either of Jones or Wijnaldum. He just kept it simple and flowing over and over.

He also was finding Wijnaldum and Jones with the ball when they went forward and he found Firmino a lot with passes and as with a lot of games of lot, Bobby then either took too much time after getting the pass or miscontrolled it.


He was also a big part of us holding the ball for spells of play as he was difficult to get the ball off of last night and very comfortable being the outlet for others even when he was being marked tightly.

[Big-Red-Ed]

Yes I thought Thiago was excellent last night. I think up till now Thiago has been trying to play like he did with Bayern. Even those around him have been deferring to him. The last couple of games he has played like we need him to play given our current personnel.
We will eventually see the real Thiago once everyone is fit and firing.

YNWA

[Buzzo]

Yes I thought Thiago was excellent last night. I think up till now Thiago has been trying to play like he did with Bayern. Even those around him have been deferring to him. The last couple of games he has played like we need him to play given our current personnel.
We will eventually see the real Thiago once everyone is fit and firing.

YNWA

He is fire fighting a lot, but I agree in a settled side he’ll be class.

[frank the tank]

Would love to know if he regrets leaving Bayern. Obviously he wanted a new challenge but in reality he would have seen us up close when we spanked Bayern in the CL a few years ago, and then watched us break all records in the league the following year. He would have thought that he was joining an unreal crushing team.

Obviously the injuries screwed our season but i think Thiago will be determined to prove that joining LFC was the right thing for him to do. I think we will be so hungry next year to prove that this season was a total anomaly......including Thiago.

[Paul12]

I get that he is a really good player, but this season and in that team as it is currently playing, he is in my view a weak link. His tackling leads to yellow cards and free kicks given away in dangerous positions. His attempts to turn his way out of close attention are being read too easily. And, when I watch closely what he does with the ball, I find his usage is currently less progressive/incisive than the other midfielders' usage.

I think he has found it a really tough start and has started to concentrate mainly on not losing the ball, even when close to the box. We have so much ball ten yards outside the box and what we need is someone who the opposition are scared of leaving with the ball in that position.

[Doc_Piptorious]

I get that he is a really good player, but this season and in that team as it is currently playing, he is in my view a weak link. His tackling leads to yellow cards and free kicks given away in dangerous positions. His attempts to turn his way out of close attention are being read too easily. And, when I watch closely what he does with the ball, I find his usage is currently less progressive/incisive than the other midfielders' usage.

I think he has found it a really tough start and has started to concentrate mainly on not losing the ball, even when close to the box. We have so much ball ten years outside the box and what we need is someone who the opposition are scared of leaving with the ball in that position.

And yet he is the midfielder who has been dispossessed the least, misplaced the least passes from him, made the most successful passes, and won the most tackles from between him, Wijnaldum and Jones the past five or six games.

Not to mention the fact he is playing a different role to what he played when at Bayern and is primarily being used in a CDM role for us. He is basically being used in the role Fabinho used to play in for us and he is not as good in that role as Fabinho is.

What he has been in most of the games he has played in for us is solid but unspectactular. He is doing all the basics well, and he is recycling the ball better than all our other starting midfielders. Is he racking up goals and assists? No but then again he never did that for Bayern or Barca ether.

Is he finding forward players with passes? Turns out he is and the guy he is finding the most in the final third is Firmino. The guy he was finding the second most in our last game in the final third was Wijnaldum.


So as said he is having solid games and I suspect that if players he was finding in the final third were in turn setting up assists more or scoring more then Thiago might be standing out more as a result.

But as said by a number of folk, the new guys in the team are a bit of a red herring as to why the team looks so disjointed. If we look past the obvious injuries then the new guys like Kabak and Thiago seem to be looked at a lot more as reasons why we are not playing well than guys like Wijnaldum, Milner, Robertson, TAA, Firmino, Mane etc who have underperformed a hell of a lot this season and who have been more guilty of playing it safe, dithering on the ball, misplacing passes, being dispossessed than the new guys still setlling into a new team and country.

If Thiago and Kabak are expected to hit the ground running in a misfiring team, then where are our settled regulars when it comes to doing what we are ecpecting the new guys to be doing?

[Tribute]

And yet he is the midfielder who has been dispossessed the least, misplaced the least passes from him, made the most successful passes, and won the most tackles from between him, Wijnaldum and Jones the past five or six games.

Not to mention the fact he is playing a different role to what he played when at Bayern and is primarily being used in a CDM role for us. He is basically being used in the role Fabinho used to play in for us and he is not as good in that role as Fabinho is.

What he has been in most of the games he has played in for us is solid but unspectactular. He is doing all the basics well, and he is recycling the ball better than all our other starting midfielders. Is he racking up goals and assists? No but then again he never did that for Bayern or Barca ether.

Is he finding forward players with passes? Turns out he is and the guy he is finding the most in the final third is Firmino. The guy he was finding the second most in our last game in the final third was Wijnaldum.


So as said he is having solid games and I suspect that if players he was finding in the final third were in turn setting up assists more or scoring more then Thiago might be standing out more as a result.

But as said by a number of folk, the new guys in the team are a bit of a red herring as to why the team looks so disjointed. If we look past the obvious injuries then the new guys like Kabak and Thiago seem to be looked at a lot more as reasons why we are not playing well than guys like Wijnaldum, Milner, Robertson, TAA, Firmino, Mane etc who have underperformed a hell of a lot this season and who have been more guilty of playing it safe, dithering on the ball, misplacing passes, being dispossessed than the new guys still setlling into a new team and country.

If Thiago and Kabak are expected to hit the ground running in a misfiring team, then where are our settled regulars when it comes to doing what we are ecpecting the new guys to be doing?

Well said, agree with all of this.

People just choose to see what they want to see and blame 'the new shiny thing' as the reason for this dip in form, when actually they should be looking at the players from last season and beyond, first...

[Angryred]

Well said, agree with all of this.

People just choose to see what they want to see and blame 'the new shiny thing' as the reason for this dip in form, when actually they should be looking at the players from last season and beyond, first...

Aye, next season will be the one to judge him on as will have most of the 1st team back...byjasus, we will see a very different player as Thiago will have the season behind him & a full pre-season with us.

[Buzzo]

[ame]https://twitter.com/lfc/status/1367053836255428609[/ame]

[Paul12]

Well said, agree with all of this.

People just choose to see what they want to see and blame 'the new shiny thing' as the reason for this dip in form, when actually they should be looking at the players from last season and beyond, first...

I don't agree: I think the stats quoted just show how easy it is to use stats to support almost any view one might have (Butch Wilkins probably had a high success rate for his passing too, but it was rarely progressive); Gini has been playing defensive midfield in some of the recent games and in at least one other Thiago had to be moved to a more advanced role because he was not able to cope in a covering role forward; and he gave away the freekick against Leicester and it was his header that created the passing opporrtunity for Everton's first goal so, even if I wouldn't put the blame for those goals solely at his feet, I also wouldn't describe his performances as 'solid'.

I do have high hopes for him in a Liverpool shirt and everytime he gets the ball I will him to do something decent with it, but currently he is in the 11 because of a lack of decent alternatives rather than because of his performances.