Thiago Alcantara made his ninth Liverpool appearance during a stunning 3-1 victory against Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday night. Kopites have reacted on Twitter to the Spaniard’s performance.
Thiago, 29, has had to be patient for opportunities following a sustained period on the sidelines this season. The £20 million [BBC] man from Bayern Munich is clearly still adjusting to life in his new surroundings.
Still, there have been signs that Thiago can still take Liverpool’s midfield up another gear, too. Last night, was only his second Premier League victory as a Reds player, after all.
The former Barcelona maestro featured for 77 minutes before Klopp decided to make a tactical switch to swap Thiago for Curtis Jones.
Steady and unspectacular, but the signs are there
Thiago initially struggled to leave his imprint on the game and compared to Gini Wijnaldum and James Milner, was arguably the weakest performer of Jurgen Klopp’s midfield triumvirate.
This isn’t a criticism of Thiago’s performance, either, more so to highlight the brilliance of those around him. Wijnaldum, in particular, was unplayable against Jose Mourinho’s Lilywhites.
One fault of Thiago’s game last night was his persistence to fly into needless challenges in unthreatening areas of the pitch. And, as a result, picked up an unnecessary booking.
What was encouraging from Thiago, however, was his persistence to influence the game higher up the pitch.
In total, Thiago made 60 passes and clocked up an impressive success rate of 90 per cent, per WhoScored.
More to come
Klopp was right to defend Thiago in the aftermath of Liverpool’s first league win of 2021.
The Reds boss detailed the tactical tweak that enabled Liverpool to overpower a Tottenham team meaning 50 per cent of Mourinho’s league defeats this season have come against the English champions.
Klopp said he purposely deployed Thiago further ahead of Wijnaldum and Milner to allow the Spanish international greater freedom to operate forward.
The boss was quick to suggest that there is plenty more to come from Liverpool’s marque summer signing.
“It was good,” Klopp said. “It was necessary as well. It was a good moment to show that we are still here.
“That is good to know. Now we go home and come back in a few hours for West Ham.
“We played today a slightly different position and it worked really well with Gini and Milly as a No.6.
“That was a proper, proper performance. I know Thiago can do much better than tonight but it was just an important step for all of us.
“The situation with Thiago was not easy. He came to Liverpool late then got ill, then was injured and was then playing immediately in a decisive position.
“So we thought that tonight, it might make sense to play it slightly higher on the pitch.”
Reaction
Naturally, a number of Kopites shared Klopp’s optimism following Thiago’s fifth consecutive Premier League start. He is only going to get better. Here are a selection of responses to the Liverpool No.6’s performance.
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