On the 18th Of September 2020, Liverpool FC announced the signing of the Spanish midfielder Thiago Alcântara from Bayern Munich for £20 Million with £5 million with performance based add ons included. Leaving Bayern Munich after 7 years with 7 Bundesligas, 4 DFB Pokals, 3 DFL Supercups, a Champions League and a Club World Cup. Whilst at Bayern he racked up 134 games, 15 goals and 16 assists in the Bundesliga during the 7 years Thiago was plying his trade over in Germany for the Bavarians. I, like many other fans, were excited at the prospect of having a new world class midfielder. But so far Thiago’s career at Anfield hasn’t been all that jazz. So what’s gone wrong?
The Injury
Thiago’s first game came in a half time substitute appearance against Frank Lampards coming on for Jordan Henderson. Within these 45 minutes Thiago broke the record for most successful passes completed by a player with a maximum of 45 minutes in the Premier League since records began in 2003-04 season. The amount of passes? 75, which also was 16 more passes than any Chelsea player on the pitch. After this game Jurgen Klopp came out and said that Thiago wasn’t going to be fit until probably after the international break which just so happened to be the Merseyside Derby against Everton. A 2-2 draw over shadowed by the disallowed goal from VAR but more importantly, Virgil Van Dijk rupturing his ACL. However, in the dying minutes of the game, Everton striker Richarlison went in against Thiago with his studs up with a near leg break of a tackle on Thiago who managed to see out the remaining minutes but was clearly hurt.
After the Everton game Thiago missed 11 games, coming back and playing in the 1-0 lose to Southampton. Since then playing 1002 minutes and only missing 1 game out of 14. 6 of which Thiago would go on to play the full 90 minutes. 5 wins, 1 draw and 7 loses. Most recently beating Arsenal in a 3-1 win playing the full 90.
The Defensive Woes
I think the main reason why we haven’t seen the best of Thiago is because he was bought for a system that Liverpool haven’t been playing since October and only now starting to show promise of the system. The system that Liverpool FC play is a 4-3-3 with the full backs over lapping whipping in crosses whilst Roberto Firmino dropping in deep to collect the ball and lay it off to either Mohammed Salah or Sadio Mane. However, the reason Liverpool haven’t been able to play this system is the lack of Virgil Van Dijk. Being without Van Dijk since October has been a massive loss for the side, as would losing any world class footballer. With Van Dijk on the sidelines it was time for Joe Gomez to step up… until he got injured whilst on international duty with England. Which left Liverpool with one fully fit centre half in the Cameroonian Joel Matip. This led to Fabinho needing to drop into defence as Rhys Williams had proved to be very shaky and Nat Phillips not yet trusted. Losing Fabinho in the midfield meant that when Thiago returned against Southampton either himself or Wijnaldum needing to play in the deeper of the midfielders, as by this point Jordan Henderson would be playing in the defence due to an injury to Joel Matip. Now naturally Wijnaldum is who should occupy the defensive midfield role, however it seemed as if Thiago and Wijnaldum would both being playing the defensive roles in an attempt to hide the cracks left in midfielder now that Fabinho and Jordan Henderson are occupying the centre halves. Now that Ozan Kabak has signed on loan with an option to buy permanently in the summer and with Nat Phillips finally being trusted it looks as if we can now let Fabinho sit in midfield and dominate leaving Thiago and a choice of Wijnaldum, Naby Keita, Oxlade – Chamberlain and Curtis Jones free to play more attacking when necessary and not need to just rely on Roberto Firmino to drop deep. This also gives more freedom for the full backs to push higher up the pitch and, as seen against Arsenal, lead to more attacking threats and more chances created.
Playing Defensive?
When Thiago first signed, I thought “Great more world class opportunities for world class forwards.” While this hasn’t been true other than the occasional piece of magic. This seems to be because Jurgen Klopp is content with playing Thiago in more of a defensive role. Looking at the games against Arsenal and Wolves there didn’t seem to much output from him or if there was it didn’t lead to any big chances in the games mentioned. Looking at Thiagos defensive stats in the Premier League this season in 16 games Thiago has made 37 tackles and 21 interceptions which is 2.3 tackles per game and 1.3 interceptions per game. Compared to Wijnaldum, who has played 14 more games this season than Thiago but in a similar position has 20 completed tackles and 21 completed interceptions, 1.5 completed tackles per game and a 1.4 completed interception per game. This is very interesting as one player is wanted by Barcelona whilst the other is being called a flop because he has been playing more defensive and has been playing well and keeping under the radar.
Has Anything Gone Wrong?
A player signed for a system that has been unable to be played because of injuries crisis, but has anything gone wrong for Thiago himself? Other than contracting COVID-19 and a near broken leg. Nothing has really gone wrong for Thiago. In Thiagos last season in the Bundesliga, he completed 68.3 completed passes per game, compared to this season in 8 less games where he has completed 65.8 passes per game which is only a 2.5 less passes per game which isn’t much of a difference. But also, Thiago last season in the Bundesliga had 0 zeros assists and 3 goals in 24 games, similar to this season where he is 0 goals and assist in 16 games. Only the 3 goals difference in 8 more games shows he may have been in the box more in an very attacking Bayern Munich side who scored 100 goals in the Bundesliga last season. This is a stark contrast to Liverpool’s 51 goals this season. One issue that may have occurred when signing Thiago may have been an over-hypeness on how many assists and goals we may have assumed Thiago got for the German side and after seeing Thiago run a Champions League final.
Final Thoughts
Overall, my final thoughts on Thiago, he will become a much better player for us once Virgil Van Dijk comes back into the team as that gives the fullbacks even more freedom to run up the wings as currently its Fabinho and Thiago doing the dirty work there to save Ozan Kabak and Nat Phillips. Also his defensive output shouldn’t be overlooked, yes he isn’t the one clear the balls of line but he is stopping some of the attacks against us though I do think he should be moved a little bit more up the field in an attempt to send the diamond balls that he can send first class to Trent Alexander- Arnold or Andy Robertson but that can’t happen until Virgil Van Dijk is back.