This week marks two years since Liverpool signed Thiago Alcantara from Bayern Munich. It seems remarkable now that some pundits and fans were unsure about the likely success of the transfer, both in view of the Spanish international’s pedigree prior to his move to Merseyside and how well the Reds have done with him in the side.
The doubters were there, though, worried that his effortless style on the ball would slow the Reds down. It wasn’t an entirely unreasonable assumption, in fairness. Jurgen Klopp might have dialled down the ‘heavy metal football’ which characterised his early years in England, but his Liverpool side were still a seriously intense beast.
Concerns were still being raised half way through Thiago’s first season with the Reds. Any doubts would surely have been laid to rest far sooner had the first Merseyside derby of 2020/21 panned out differently.
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Chances are you don’t need a recap, but just in case: Virgil van Dijk’s season was ended at Goodison Park thanks to a horrendous challenge from Jordan Pickford. Thiago, making his first start for the club, later suffered a red card foul from Richarlison and subsequently missed 16 matches thanks to a knee problem.
By the time he returned, an injury crisis had engulfed the club and he was playing in front of centre-back pairings many of us would have never imagined. It was little wonder Alcantara was not performing to his best during that period.
What made his relative struggles more frustrating was that the former Barcelona man had already shown glimpses of his strengths, running the second half of a match against 10-man Chelsea and almost helping create a derby winner (only for VAR to intervene). His influence upon the team had been immediately apparent.
This impact is most obviously shown by his fantastic record when starting in midfield with Fabinho. The pair have begun 32 matches together, with Liverpool winning 26 of them while scoring 77 goals and conceding just 19. In only one of the games – a 2-2 draw at the Etihad last season – have the Reds posted the lower expected goal total of the two sides in the match. The results have been justified and arguably deserve to be even better.
The duo’s overall record together is weakened by Fabinho’s time at centre-back when the team was struggling through the winter of 2020. Thiago’s most profitable pairing has been with van Dijk, as Liverpool have averaged 2.45 points per game (or 93 for a season) for the matches in which they have both played. Again, the destructive derby looms large. While no one player can ever determine games, the numbers show that Liverpool are better at almost all key metrics when they have Alcantara in their side.
His sublime passing ability is what makes the real difference. Need to evade the opposition press? Want to recycle possession swiftly around the attacking third? Thiago is your man. He’s also incredibly adept at long passes, something which Liverpool have leaned on more during the early weeks of 2022/23 as they look to invoke a slightly more direct style with Darwin Nunez now on board.
Even though they are more accurate than most teams, the Reds only complete around 69 per cent of their long passes (per FBRef). Thiago’s Liverpool average has been 83.5 per cent in league and Europe, and he casually completed 18 out of 20 as part of a masterclass in the recent win against Ajax.
Previous concerns that he would be a problem defensively have also proven unfounded. Ahead of the transfer, Reds legend John Barnes said: “Out of possession however, he's obviously not going to be as dynamic as our current three midfield players… As much as he’s a fabulous player, he’s not too great without the ball.”
Yet in his first season he recorded the second most pressures by any Liverpool player during that campaign, in a 4-2 win at Old Trafford. Thiago was also the only player to press at least 34 times more than once in 2021/22 too. Add in that he came off the bench to make more tackles than the starting midfield and full-backs collectively managed in the recent 4-1 loss at Napoli, and you've clearly got a player unafraid to put in a shift defensively
Good off the ball and great on it, there’s not much Alcantara cannot do. Whatever Liverpool manage to achieve this season, it would be a shock if Thiago is not at the centre of their success.
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