Thiago Alcântara, one of the world’s finest central midfielders is his way to the Premier League next season. Liverpool have agreed a £27million deal to secure the Spanish international’s services from Bayern Munich. The midfielder will sign a four-year-deal at Anfield, taking his infamous and preferred shirt number of no.6.
Rarely will you see such a world-class footballer be available for such said amounts. Certainly, the coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on club finances. Clubs will be unwilling to spend huge fees on players, but this is an opportunity Liverpool simply could not pass up on.
It’s been reported that Thiago held huge ambitions to move to Anfield, despite Manchester United’s small interest and is excited at the possibility of working for the former Borussia Dortmund coach. Thiago is just what they need. The perfect tonic, the perfect component in order to take their game to that next level.
Thiago Alcântara is indeed one of the finest of his generation, a creative metronome, a real joy to behold when he is in full flow. That’s been the story of his role in Bayern Munich’s resurgence under Hansi Flick since the turn of the year.
Almost every Bayern attack flowed through the Spanish midfielder. A jinky, silky, technically gifted and unique distributor of the ball. If you’ve seen his performances over the past few games in the Champions League, you’ll see the ease at which he operates, breaking opposition lines without even looking. He knows what he’s going to do, holding a picture in his head before he even performs his next move.
The awareness, the vision, the technical acumen, the passing, the understanding of where his attacking teammates are is simply unerring. Thiago makes the difficult things look so simple.
Throughout his career, he’s featured as a number 10 looking to deliver the final ball, as a number six at the base of the midfield looking to break up play and redistribute possession from deep, or as a midfield all-rounder providing momentum to the play, acting as distributor-in-chief from a more advanced position in the centre of the pitch.
Against Leeds on the opening day, Liverpool needed a commanding presence in midfield, someone who could change the pace of the game when players go into panic mode and the momentum of the match passes them by. Bielsa’s Leeds thoroughly overran Liverpool’s midfield at times in a fantastic 4-3 defeat, and Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum and Naby Keita just couldn’t grab a hold of the game and calm things down.
Thiago offers that in abundance, he showed just that against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final, just consummately getting the ball and distributing it with relative ease, everything slowing down to his pace. PSG just couldn’t live with him, they couldn’t get close to him as the Spaniard ran the show.
He’s not just your average pass master, but Thiago has added a lot of weaponry to his extraordinary footballing gifts especially in the defensive department. He’s now capable of breaking up play like a destructive defensive midfielder, screening ahead for danger and also getting himself involved in Bayern’s relentless counter-pressing, quickly trying to win the ball back in order to instantly build an attack.
Thiago has it all. It’s a shame his exceptional abilities are only being fully appreciated now, at the age of 29. If not for the recurring injuries earlier on his career, he could have well been deemed as one of the greatest of his generation.
It’s time about time Thiago graces the Premier League, and he’s the perfect missing piece in Jurgen Klopp’s jigsaw. So often Liverpool have relied on Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson for creativity from the wide areas, whereas their creativity in the middle derives from Roberto Firmino dropping deep to pick the ball and link-up with the likes of Sadio Mane and Mo Salah.
While Liverpool’s midfielders, Giorgino Wijnaldum, Jordan Henderson and Fabinho provide the engine and efficiency with and without the ball, the full-backs are the ones supplying the necessary cutting thrust balls to hurt the opposition.
With Thiago, in the fold, Liverpool will certainly hold a much needed variety in their play. The invention and imagination won’t just derive from the full-backs but from Thiago’s technically brilliant weaponry.
At Bayern, Thiago is charged with sitting deep and orchestrating attacks, dissecting opposition lines with his fine passing and wonderful vision at the base of Flick’s fluid 4-2-3-1 system.
In Liverpool’s 4-3-3 system, the Spaniard could perform all that and more on the right of the trio, becoming more involved in the attacking build-up, and having a major influence in the final third. The Spaniard astonishingly averaged 9.69 final third passes per 90 last season highlighting his extraordinary abilities on the ball, but in Klopp’s gegenpressing system, Thiago could fit right in.
Like stated previously, Thiago isn’t just a pass master, he’s as effective without the ball as he is with it.
He successfully completed 5.60 successful pressures, 3.77 tackles won, and 4.02 interceptions per 90 meaning he is just as effective and dominant in his defensive duels, adding to his amazing variety in his own game and the flexibility at which he could offer Liverpool. He can perform, the roaming no.8 role, the deep-lying number 6 role or at no.10 if need be. At least, Liverpool will finally have a player in midfield who can pick out the constantly moving forwards at such regularity and accuracy.
Jurgen Klopp will be looking to evolve Liverpool’s football next season, as certain clubs will now be looking to suppress their weaponry and probably focus on halting their attacking full-backs, and Thiago’s arrival could be the centre of that evolution, providing the creativity and invention that Liverpool have been desiring in the midfield.
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