Thiago Alcantara

[aRdja]

20 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

I will say, to your point, he's not using the ball as well as he should. He is far better with the ball than what he has shown. What it looks like is, he's tried to adapt to the way we play midfield and he's just using it simply. What he should be doing is being the guy to break the opposition press and play incisive balls to the fullbacks and Mane/Salah. There hasn't been enough of that. 

 

Your first post was absolute nonsense though because actually, the way he's playing right now, he's running all over the place, throwing himself into tackles, trying to be physical and intense and adapting to our play. It actually looks like he's trying hard to mimic the way that Milner plays or something, and he's actually doing a decent job minus the fouls he's making, but he's not being himself. 

 

But despite all that, he's still objectively been fine. He's far from the disaster you'd think he was by the way most supporters are describing. And it's still not at all a concern to me. We turned into a mediocre football team way before he started playing. 

 

 

Good post. I reckon he’s thinking “what have I got myself into?” at the moment. The Liverpool team he’s in isn’t the same as the Liverpool team Klopp sold him.

[Jairzinho]

1 minute ago, aws said:

We'll keep them both and hedge our bets by having five CBs in the squad next season. 

Yes, I expect we'll do just that. 

[Barrington Womble]

11 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

He'd just turned 18 when we signed him so the 79 appearances in five and a half seasons thing isn't entirely reflective. Matip has been first choice at times as well. 

 

Anyway we're not going to bin him and Matip in the summer so we have to make the decision with the context of the Matip situation. 

 

 

I don't think we'll bin either of them. He only became 2nd choice to matip by getting injured himself and as we know, matip will provide an opportunity to get back in. To give it some context Trent has played almost 50% more games even though he made his Liverpool debut 14 months later. 

 

I think we go into next season assuming those two will play less than 40 matches between then in all competitions, as that seems about par. 

[Guest Alex_K]

15 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

He's shite, I'm astonished anyone can still defend him. He's been an integral part of the worst Liverpool team certainly since shankly has been manager, but as all the stats are showing, it's probably 100 years. We were top of the league and unbeaten in years at home when he was injured. He's not even been in the team 2 months yet. 

“The worst Liverpool team certainly since Shankly.” Fuck me.

[Barrington Womble]

8 minutes ago, Alex_K said:

“The worst Liverpool team certainly since Shankly.” Fuck me.

When have we been worse than this? The results speak for themselves . We have never lost 4 on the bounce at home since the 1920s. We have never gone this many games without scoring from open play at home. We are absolutely dogshit. We are currently worse than hodgsons team, which was the previous low point. And it completely coincides with this fella coming into the team and being at complete odds with all his team mates. When a player is on a wavelength with nobody, the reality is he's just a bit shit. 

[El Rojo]

1 hour ago, skaro said:

 

A bit like Diogo Rush?

 

Ha, I’m guilty of that one myself. No pressure, Diogo. 

[Mathewbet1]

lets make an international worldclass player with 9 league titles and multiple european cups the scapegoat.

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

15 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

When have we been worse than this? The results speak for themselves . We have never lost 4 on the bounce at home since the 1920s. We have never gone this many games without scoring from open play at home. We are absolutely dogshit. We are currently worse than hodgsons team, which was the previous low point. And it completely coincides with this fella coming into the team and being at complete odds with all his team mates. When a player is on a wavelength with nobody, the reality is he's just a bit shit. 

The good news is all we have to do is get rid of one player and everything will be fine.

 

Fuck off the serial winner with more major trophies to his name than any other member of the squad, probably than our entire squad combined. 
 

Unbelievable that Klopp doesnt see this obvious solution to the problem.

[Barrington Womble]

1 minute ago, Joey8FrogsLegs said:

The good news is all we have to do is get rid of one player and everything will be fine.

 

Fuck off the serial winner with more major trophies to his name than any other member of the squad, probably than our entire squad combined. 
 

Unbelievable that Klopp doesnt see this obvious solution to the problem.

I think if we had other players available he'd have been bombed by now, no doubt about it. But we don't, so he plays. Slowly. 

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

2 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

I think if we had other players available he'd have been bombed by now, no doubt about it. But we don't, so he plays. Slowly. 

We’re never gonna agree on this one, so may as well leave it there. But I have one suggestin for you. I keep reading how he slows our play down. Next game try counting the number of times he passes it with his first touch. And how many of those passes are forward passes, reaching a team mate in a good position. Then compare that to all those other players that are nowhere near as shite as he is.

[3 Stacks]

The conversation around him is so dishonest, though. At the end of the day, it's Klopp's job to figure out why we're losing most of the time when he's in the team. He's the one who signed him.

 

Thiago can only do his own job, and if you look at each of his games individually, it warrants a call for certain improvements, but it doesn't warrant him being singled out to this degree. 

[Barrington Womble]

6 minutes ago, Joey8FrogsLegs said:

We’re never gonna agree on this one, so may as well leave it there. But I have one suggestin for you. I keep reading how he slows our play down. Next game try counting the number of times he passes it with his first touch. And how many of those passes are forward passes, reaching a team mate in a good position. Then compare that to all those other players that are nowhere near as shite as he is.

Count how many passes he plays either behind players or at them so they have to check their run. I've watched him closely and he does nothing but slow us down. That's why I referenced before he plays like it's no run football, he just slots slow passes directly to where someone is at that moment. We had 8 players in that starting line up who have been 1st picks in our league and CL winning teams. And we were still top of the league at Christmas. This lad has come in and played his style and not our style and completely and utterly destroyed us - in praising him in a previous post, stringvest was saying how he's not on the same wavelength as our forwards and robbo. That was praise that he doesn't get half our team! People seem to want to think at times it can't be the new signing. It can't be the lad who was great elsewhere. We've a pretty big track record with these players. We know what they can give to a klopp team. Thiago has come in to a team doing reasonably well, if not at its best and completely sucked the life out of the team. 

[3 Stacks]

8 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

Count how many passes he plays either behind players or at them so they have to check their run. I've watched him closely and he does nothing but slow us down. That's why I referenced before he plays like it's no run football, he just slots slow passes directly to where someone is at that moment. We had 8 players in that starting line up who have been 1st picks in our league and CL winning teams. And we were still top of the league at Christmas. This lad has come in and played his style and not our style and completely and utterly destroyed us - in praising him in a previous post, stringvest was saying how he's not on the same wavelength as our forwards and robbo. That was praise that he doesn't get half our team! People seem to want to think at times it can't be the new signing. It can't be the lad who was great elsewhere. We've a pretty big track record with these players. We know what they can give to a klopp team. Thiago has come in to a team doing reasonably well, if not at its best and completely sucked the life out of the team. 

Such complete nonsense. My word. 

[3 Stacks]

Thiago Alcantara, the man who has singlehandedly brought the Liverpool dynasty to its knees. Amazing. 

[TheHowieLama]

12 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

 Think Luka Modric, 

Scores and assists.

[Jairzinho]

Can we swap Firmino and Benzema? 

[Barrington Womble]

31 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

Such complete nonsense. My word. 

We were top of the league at Xmas. Unbeaten at home in years. He's been in the side about 9 or 10 games, in that time we've lost as many league matches in less than 2 months as we have in the previous 2 years, we've blown our home record and now are building 2 others in defeats and lack of goals from open play and we're now closer to the team in 17th than 1st having played a game less. The fella has been like king Midas in reverse. 

[Mathewbet1]

Let's take him to the horse doctor , put him down, then nuke him from orbit, it's the only way to be sure 

[VladimirIlyich]

1 hour ago, Alex_K said:

“The worst Liverpool team certainly since Shankly.” Fuck me.

Barry has forgotten Souness reign and also The Owl. They could only dream of one time topping the table at Christmas.

[elvis]

9 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

We were top of the league at Xmas. Unbeaten at home in years. He's been in the side about 9 or 10 games, in that time we've lost as many league matches in less than 2 months as we have in the previous 2 years, we've blown our home record and now are building 2 others in defeats and lack of goals from open play and we're now closer to the team in 17th than 1st having played a game less. The fella has been like king Midas in reverse. 

The reasons we are so poor at the moment .

1. injuries to our defence meaning we have to steal from midfield . 

2. lack of confidence 

3 . no crowds . We miss the fans more than anyone - no one lifts the team like our fans . Football bid barely fucking watchable without fans , sticking the knife in right now is not behaviour befitting a real fan .

Wake me up at the end of August

[3 Stacks]

32 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

We were top of the league at Xmas. Unbeaten at home in years. He's been in the side about 9 or 10 games, in that time we've lost as many league matches in less than 2 months as we have in the previous 2 years, we've blown our home record and now are building 2 others in defeats and lack of goals from open play and we're now closer to the team in 17th than 1st having played a game less. The fella has been like king Midas in reverse. 

Ever heard the phrase "correlation does not imply causation"?

[Guest Alex_K]

Thiago was bought with the European Cup in mind, little doubt about that. Quite an arrogant signing really - and I say that in the best possible way. As a club expect we were über confident coming into the season - why wouldn’t we be after the last 150 games? But whereas he was bought to be the cherry on top of an extremely stable team (for all the injury talk, our first 11 had been flawless fitness wise for 2 years), he instead has found himself in a side in turmoil. From one absolute extreme to the other.

[Barrington Womble]

27 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Barry has forgotten Souness reign and also The Owl. They could only dream of one time topping the table at Christmas.

I don't recall is losing 4 games on the bounce under either of them. I'm happy to be corrected, but did we lose 6 in 9 under them? Did we go 5 games at anfield without scoring a goal from open play? 

[Barrington Womble]

10 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

Ever heard the phrase "correlation does not imply causation"?

And the simplest answer is usually the correct one. Smashing, let's say lots of pointless phrases when instead you can see he's just been utter crap and ripped the momentum out of the way this team plays. People don't like to admit it, but we are a long ball team and have been all the time under klopp. Not a long ball team in traditional English way, but we are a team that likes to hit it long quickly and play percentage football going for 2nd balls if it doesn't stick with our forwards. Litterally overnight we've stopped doing that.  

[3 Stacks]

14 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

And the simplest answer is usually the correct one. Smashing, let's say lots of pointless phrases when instead you can see he's just been utter crap and ripped the momentum out of the way this team plays. People don't like to admit it, but we are a long ball team and have been all the time under klopp. Not a long ball team in traditional English way, but we are a team that likes to hit it long quickly and play percentage football going for 2nd balls if it doesn't stick with our forwards. Litterally overnight we've stopped doing that.  

Listen, I'm tired of arguing against someone who keeps repeating "he brings absolutely nothing" and "he's shite" every second sentence. Let's see how his Liverpool career develops further and then lets come back, because you're mostly dripping with hyperbole and it's getting boring.