Thiago Alcantara

[Irishnev]

Ffs lads - he is one of the best midfielders in the world. He was nearly crippled just after he caught Covid and has played 4 games in 10 days with no break and utter garbage ahead of him. He is not the problem - remember the games vs Ev and Chelsea to think of what be brings

[Irishnev]

Equally he must be thinking.

‘What the ****...’

This will be the first season in his career he hasn’t won the League

He won 10 from 11

[danperkins]

Equally he must be thinking.

‘What the ****...’

This will be the first season in his career he hasn’t won the League

To be fair to him too the movement up top is a disgrace.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Ffs lads - he is one of the best midfielders in the world. He was nearly crippled just after he caught Covid and has played 4 games in 10 days with no break and utter garbage ahead of him. He is not the problem - remember the games vs Ev and Chelsea to think of what be brings

[Exiled_red]

Problem for me with the midfield is it's missing Henderson, put him back in midfield and he will sort Thiago out get him playing at the right tempo.

[danperkins]

Problem for me with the midfield is it's missing Henderson, put him back in midfield and he will sort Thiago out get him playing at the right tempo.

yup as I said can't judge him yet as the setup isn't there but I would be lying if I said I haven't been slightly disappointed with his performances.

[baitman]

Problem for me with the midfield is it's missing Henderson, put him back in midfield and he will sort Thiago out get him playing at the right tempo.

And tonight wijnaldum was so static i though we'd put another statue up.

[Big-Red-Ed]

I am also disappointed in Thiago. I really was expecting more in terms of clever passes to unlock tight defenses. Or quick turns and dribbles to break solid lines. I am hoping he will get up to speed because at the moment you have to say the evidence is beginning to mount that he is one of the reasons why we are suddenly struggling. I do agree that Henderson back in the middle will help him. Also the illness and longish time out with injury and being thrown in at a time when the whole team is struggling for form has been a big ask. I think patience will be required from us all.

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[Maxiedge]

Played some nice balls last night only for the move to breakdown with poor touch/ control from a forward. The lack of quality was systemic last night.

[Norbs]

Yeah, not sure he's the problem. He's come in to the side while it's stuttering. You can't polish a turd but you can roll it in glitter.

[npinn001]

Yeah, not sure he's the problem. He's come in to the side while it's stuttering. You can't polish a turd but you can roll it in glitter.

Yep. There's a big difference in terms of the side he came into. Last season, with all players fit, we still struggled to break teams down. We controlled the game, compressed the defence and midfield, and we often lacked someone to ping passes to unlock defences. This year, without the solid defence and compressed space and control, it doesn't give us that edge. Right now he's a very good midfielder filling in and until we get fab and hendo next to him, we won't see the best of him.

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[frank the tank]

Yep. There's a big difference in terms of the side he came into. Last season, with all players fit, we still struggled to break teams down. We controlled the game, compressed the defence and midfield, and we often lacked someone to ping passes to unlock defences. This year, without the solid defence and compressed space and control, it doesn't give us that edge. Right now he's a very good midfielder filling in and until we get fab and hendo next to him, we won't see the best of him.

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[Doc_Piptorious]

The problem for Thiago is he is having to come into a disjointed midfield and having to take on roles that, whilst he can do them, are not what we bought them for.

Since he joined he is doing a lot of the dirty work and his stats back that up. He is a player that will find other players if they are making runs and if there is good movement around him. Problem we have right now is that Thiago is having to take on a lot of what Fabinho and also Henderson would so in the middle, plus the movement up front ahead of him has been middling at best since he came back, and the movement around him in the middle is not great either in terms of players making runs from deep for him to feed the ball to.

He is one of the best in the word in his role, but even the best cannot make incisive play making passes when there is nobody ahead of them making runs for the ball.

And what I did notice a lot last night was that when he did make passes to players ahead of him, the receiving players either miscontrolled the ball or just hung onto it for too long after getting it.


He is doing well so far in what he is doing and his underlying stats back up what the eye can see as well.


Put Fabinho behind him in the Kimmich role and have Henderson providing box to box alongside Thiago and sudenly you get to see Thiago showing why he is one of the best, if not the best in the world, in that pivot role

[Exiled_red]

The one hope that I am clinging to is that we get at least one of Henderson or Fabinho back into midfield and things improve significantly. For me Henderson is the key, maybe Fabinho is the better DM but Henderson is capable and willing to do the dirty work in the middle to allow Thiago and the more skillful players influence the game.

Obviously that require one or more of the new CBs to settle in and Fab get back to fitness.

[danperkins]

The movement up top has been dire all season. Vs Spurs Bobby's movement was fantastic showing for the ball in deep and wide positions and his first touch was fantastic. That's pretty much the only game I can think of that he had a stand out game in 2020. The quality of his movement and touch has gone off a cliff, Salah is often tightly marked but even his movement has been poor but imo when Mane's movement is static then you know something is wrong. That's pretty much the way it has been most of the season and why Jota was such a breath of fresh air. I completely get that when Thiago gets the ball there is not much to play to & it doesn't help playing with Milner who could hardly move & Gini apart from the recent games in London is playing at about 50%.

In saying all that, Thiago has been a bit slow on the ball and vs "low block" sides he needs to be quicker in moving it, he's just hanging on it for a second longer than he needs to. He's a worldie and no doubts we will see the best of him if we ever get our midfield back but he has struggled a bit. We need to get Hendo back into the midfield asap, he's the key alright.