Thiago Alcantara

[shouter]

1 hour ago, Mook said:

Shankly didn't like sicknotes & neither do I.

 

Him & the likes of Oxlade Chamberlain & Keita should be fucked off at the next available opportunity where we can get decent replacements in.

This

[shouter]

The fella hasn’t played more than 25 games a season  in about the last 5 years . Can’t believe anyone sanctioned his signing to basically replace a player who pretty much played every game when we were already littered with injury pronned players.

[an tha]

To be fair to Thiago, once he came back from that injury at the pit last season he was available for every league game after that and played in all of them and was an unused sub once - 23 successive games from "matchday 16" (shite phrase) to end of season.

 

This season he has had a bit of stop start campaign with a shite start to season due to not being fit from summer and then an injury and then covid....misssed first game, featured in next 4, missed next 5, featured in next 7, missed last 2 (league only stats)

 

 

[Megadrive Man]

15 minutes ago, shouter said:

The fella hasn’t played more than 25 games a season  in about the last 5 years . Can’t believe anyone sanctioned his signing to basically replace a player who pretty much played every game when we were already littered with injury pronned players.

He's played more than 25 games in all of the previous six seasons. He played 30 games for us last year despite not arriving until September, contracting covid and Richarlison trying to end his career.

 

Total games played over the past six seasons is 42,41,32,42,40,30.

[Barrington Womble]

13 minutes ago, MegadriveMan said:

He's played more than 25 games in all of the previous six seasons. He played 30 games for us last year despite not arriving until September, contracting covid and Richarlison trying to end his career.

 

Total games played over the past six seasons is 42,41,32,42,40,30.

"Despite not arriving till September". He missed 1 game and was signed and played in the 2nd match of the season. 

[Megadrive Man]

Just now, Barrington Womble said:

"Despite not arriving till September". He missed 1 game and was signed and played in the 2nd match of the season. 

 

That’s sort of the point I was making. He was thrust straight in to the first team. Normally Klopp likes to have a bit of time with our midfielders to get them used to the system we play.

 

It just annoys me the way he is portrayed as hardly ever being available, when it's simply not true!

 

[Barrington Womble]

11 minutes ago, MegadriveMan said:

 

That’s sort of the point I was making. He was thrust straight in to the first team. Normally Klopp likes to have a bit of time with our midfielders to get them used to the system we play.

 

It just annoys me the way he is portrayed as hardly ever being available, when it's simply not true!

 

You can't give a 29 year old a year to settle. You sign him because he's the finished article and you're buying the attributes he has. There was never any intention to ease him in. 

 

He's never been a player who has got on the pitch enough. Over 7 years with Munich, he managed an average of 21 league matches per season. A stat he's matched over his entire 12 season career. And that's all appearances, not just starts. If you break it down into minutes, he averages about 15 sets of 90 mins per season in the league. 

 

 

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

I like stats, and it’s clearly looks a worry that Thiago doesnt start enough matches or get enough minutes over a season. Like all other players, staying fit and available for selection is key.

 

On the bright side his last 17 starts for us has seen us win 15 and draw 2. In both the draws we were leading when Thiago was subbed. This shows what isn’t very hard to see, he is a key player to us now. 
 

I’d say him and Fabinho are the two best midfielders at the club by some distance now. After those it could actually be Elliott. The rest are decent squad players, but where we should have 5-6 top quality midfielders we only have 2. And one of them isn’t reliable enough so far to stay fit.

[TheHowieLama]

1 hour ago, Barrington Womble said:

If you break it down into minutes, he averages about 15 sets of 90 mins per season in the league. 

 

 

He did play 10 times in the CL and won it with Bayern his last season there. 800 plus minutes.

Bayern don't have to worry too much about league games.

 

He is a tremendous player - hope he can settle in through the New Year.

[3 Stacks]

Can we not put him in the same category as Chamberlain and Keita, please? He's just way better than those two and he's not more injury prone either. 

[DalyanPete]

3 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

He is a tremendous player - hope he can settle in through the New Year.

No disrespect but that reads as if he's just signed.

[El Rojo]

17 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

Can we not put him in the same category as Chamberlain and Keita, please? He's just way better than those two and he's not more injury prone either. 

Think there’s generally consensus on your first line. 

 

On your second, describing a footballer as ‘not more injury prone’ than Ox and Keita is like describing their arms as being no shorter than Jordan Pickford’s or their forehead being no bigger than Harry Maguire’s. 

[Barrington Womble]

29 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

He did play 10 times in the CL and won it with Bayern his last season there. 800 plus minutes.

Bayern don't have to worry too much about league games.

 

He is a tremendous player - hope he can settle in through the New Year.

The problem we have is we have so many players in midfield with fitness issues (or age/experience), that we don't need another now and again player - plus we're not Bayern, so if they were able to nurse him through the league season to get him on the pitch on the CL, good for them, but that's not us. It might be if we could get a tune out of some of the others, but we can't. 

[Lario]

8 hours ago, Jairzinho said:

We definitely needed someone like him yesterday though. Watching the likes of Milner and Henderson trying to break down a team defending on their edge of their box wasn't fun.

 

It's the biggest difference between us and City on the pitch. They can pin teams in for longer periods because they have midfielders that are better technically than most of ours.

 

We needed a Fabinho, Thiago, Jones/Elliott midfield yesterday.

I don't even think it's the fact they're players are technically better.

It's more to do with their players running beyond the ball and into the box.

The amount of fucking goals they get by somebody making a run all the way to the goalline, the ball is chipped towards them, and they either knock it back or across for someone to tap in.

We nearly did it last night. Think it was Ox playing it to Henderson.

It's not fucking rocket science like.

If everyone is lined up in straight lines, run behind them and play the ball.

[stringvest]

5 hours ago, MegadriveMan said:

 

That’s sort of the point I was making. He was thrust straight in to the first team. Normally Klopp likes to have a bit of time with our midfielders to get them used to the system we play.

 

It just annoys me the way he is portrayed as hardly ever being available, when it's simply not true!

 

Well the ‘he’s shit’ dialogue was proved to be bollocks, so we’ll go with ‘hardly ever plays’. 

[VladimirIlyich]

9 hours ago, stringvest said:

It was his form that dragged us into the CL this year.  Hardly an irrelevance.

Hmmmm.

[Code]

Those not appreciating the world class genius of Thiago, are probably the same people who thought it was a good idea to replace Xabi Alonso with Gareth fuckin Barry. 

[VladimirIlyich]

6 minutes ago, Code said:

Those not appreciating the world class genius of Thiago, are probably the same people who thought it was a good idea to replace Xabi Alonso with Gareth fuckin Barry. 

Thiago is a world class player,technically,but that's meaningless if you are not available for selection a good deal of the time.

[George Costanza]

Thiago & Fabinho are the first two midfielders on the team sheet if fit imo.  At present Henderson is the 3rd but it would be nice to have the option of someone with more attacking thrust and ability to dribble past players.  Both Ox & Keita have the potential/ability to be that player but for varying reasons neither seems to be able to sustain fitness and/or form to be that player

[Strontium]

Thiago is superb, world-class. Unfortunately that does us no good unless he's actually on the pitch.

[dockers_strike]

Just now, Strontium Dog™ said:

Thiago is superb, world-class. Unfortunately that does us no good unless he's actually on the pitch.

It does us no good if other world class players in our team take to the field and play more like Championship players either.

[ManéMan]

I don't think Henderson, Milner and Ox can be classed a world class

[Reckoner]

7 hours ago, El Rojo said:

On your second, describing a footballer as ‘not more injury prone’ than Ox and Keita is like describing their arms as being no shorter than Jordan Pickford’s or their forehead being no bigger than Harry Maguire’s. 

Funnily enough he loves a good dummy but no more than Harry Kane.

[Qwikage]

He is a Rolls Royce of a player and I would have him in our team whenever available. Is he a relaible as Wjinaldum? No. Is he a better player than Winjaldum? Undoubtedly in my opinion.

Injury record or not, we are a much better team with him on the pitch and anyone who suggests getting rid of him needs to give their head a wobble.

Ask yourself this, we are 1-0 down against a team with 30 mins left. We can subsitute Thiago, Milner, Ox , Keita, Jones or dare I say Fabhino. Of those,  who is more likley to find a pass in the final third?

[Boss]

Wijnaldum was a boss player. Let's not pretend he was a water carrier. He was virtually impossible to dispossess and understood exactly where he should be on the pitch at all times.