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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: Welcome to Liverpool Thiago Alcantara
« Last post by Sheer Magnetism on Today at 02:41:22 am »One good season out of four, but the other three seasons have nothing to do with him.I didn't say it was his 'fault', just that we got one good season out of four, which is indisputable really. But in general, Thiago never had legs. He needed to be next to someone to do his running (and preferably his defending) for him even in Germany.
His first season we lost all our senior CB for the second half of the season, and when the club didn't act in the January window when they wrote off the season when we were top there was nothing any of the players could do.
Second season is the one where we were good as a team. We got our CB back so could function again, though losing Gini meant we were light in midfield, and ultimately that cost us in the end as it was running on fumes by the end of the season. We played Fabinho vs Villa on his own, a move I felt was a mistake as weakening the midfield and leaving a first team player in there means he has to do more, and that's when an injury is more likely to be incurred (he had only just started against Spurs three days earlier in a very tough game). Wouldn't have been a popular opinion at the time but I didn't want any of our first choice midfield three anywhere near that Villa game, just felt we were too light in midfield depth to try and go all out for everything. There was of course that last day league drama, but still, going to Paris the midfield was goosed.
The next season the midfield was finished bar Thiago who did the work of two/three men. Think we knackered him in that season which saw him break down compelety meaning he didn't feature this one (bar a cameo).
Think ultimately he was sold a pup. Wonder if regrets his choice. We didn't strengthen like a competent club would: Jan '21 CBs, Summer '22 midfielders, and that ruined not just three of Thiago's 4 seasons but also Jurgen's.
That's why he looked so bad next to Gini in his first season and generally looked best when next to Fabinho and one of Henderson or Milner, or in the more measured pace of European ties. When those players weren't able to cover for his lack of running and tendency to settle around the centre circle (ie. in his first and third season), our midfield were sitting ducks. Because he couldn't do the work of one person at Premier League pace, let alone two or three. It's also why I don't think he would have got back into the team this year regardless.
People will argue that point but just look at last season: Thiago played in pretty much all our worst performances and barely any of our best. For all the stick they've taken, our midfield seemed to function fine with Henderson and Fabinho in the Man United, Leeds and Bournemouth thumpings, the away win at high-flying Newcastle or the 2-2 with top-of-the-table Arsenal - all games Thiago wasn't playing. These are facts.
Because actual goals is a worse predictor and measure of how good u are at that stuffBut we aren't predicting, we're looking back. One team won a league title and a Champions League and one team didn't. They don't give out trophies for xG!