One of the biggest signings of this transfer window has been Liverpool landing Thiago Alcantara from Bayern Munich.
The former Barcelona man won the Champions League, German Cup and Bundesliga this year with Bayern Munich before leaving them to join Jurgen Klopp’s juggernaut.
He was forced to make a first and early appearance for the Reds in their game against Chelsea last weekend, after Jordan Henderson was injured and couldn’t continue in the second half.
Thiago’s performance in his one half on the pitch can be considered a masterclass.
The midfielder made more passes than all Chelsea players in the game despite playing just 45 minutes and his 75 successful passes were the most by any player that has played just 45 minutes since full passing data became available.
If he can have that much impact in just 45 minutes, when he starts against us, he will probably represent our biggest problem on the day.
I have watched him weave his magic from midfield for Bayern Munich and I reckon that our best bet will be to come up with a special plan for him.
We will need our midfielders to be on hand to ensure that he doesn’t have the freedom to play with the ball as he did against Chelsea and that he also doesn’t get to complete all his passes, otherwise we will be in serious trouble.
As far as I know and seen Liverpool are no one man team! Any plan should be stopping the whole team and play to our strengths not putting up a plan for Thiago. And sorry to say you just sound like unai the only lines missing “adapting to the opposition”
You never know he might give away another penalty and Auba will happily oblige from 12 years 😉 OT Aulas running his mouth off that we’re skint… Always a notoriously difficult man to do dealings with.. we should move on from Aouar.. snap up Coutinho on loan and go all out for Partey this charade has gone on long enough!
what masterclass? Sorry but he came on against 10 men chelsea who did nothing but park the bus. And majority of his passes were little back and forths. Im not having a go at him, it just wasn’t a masterclass. LFC were 2-0 up against 10 men and in cruise control. And he also gave away a pen too…
Correction – the two goals were scored after Thiago came on field.
Masterclass, how do you define that. Thiago was as good as any other midfielder playing against 10 men and already 2 goals up. By the way he was too tidy not to concede a penalty. Arteta deploys a different type of play, let us wait and see.
When pundits and opportunistic columnist use opta’ s data to reveal the number of passes a player makes, am always aghast by the sheer effontry. Thiagos passes side ways and was tidy. How did his sideway passes led to a masterclass?. I can’t remember him in that Chelsea game playing an over the top pass or a through ball for time to run to. He was playing without pressure. British media tends to overhype players. BUT…. Against arsenal today, if he plays, then we are in for a torrid time. He is an expert in playing an over the top pass which salah, mane will relish. I hope elnely and xhaxa have been thoroughly and ferociously briefed