Thiago Alc*ntara | Still exists

11101

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Definitely missing somehting.

It's such a sweet strike. For me, it's the technique and the flight of the ball, the way it dips down first and then back up but never goes more than a foot off the ground.

It's a really hard to strike the ball to get it to do that. Normally a ball flight you might see on a golf drive. I don't think I've ever seen a goal where the ball moved like that, if it happened on a computer game you'd think it messed up the ball physics.
It's really not that hard. He just hit down on it to give it backspin. Happens a lot when players strike a volley from thigh/hip height.

Good goal but it's not going to be winning any awards.

Telles' goal above was far harder to execute.
 

Oranges038

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It's really not that hard. He just hit down on it to give it backspin. Happens a lot when players strike a volley from thigh/hip height.

Good goal but it's not going to be winning any awards.

Telles' goal above was far harder to execute.
Telles' was harder to pull off but Thiago's does look have a certain effortless finesse about it

I can guarantee you will find plenty of Sunday league players who are able to catch that volley like Telles, but very few if any would be able to hit a ball and get it to move like Thiago did.
 

DoubleDinhos

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Beyond the goal he ran the show the other night. Press resistant, and constantly playing the perfect ball to spring defence into attack quickly.

Who would have thought a world class player would look quality when he's a) fit and b) not playing in a dysfunctional and constantly changing midfield?
 

horsechoker

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I can guarantee you will find plenty of Sunday league players who are able to catch that volley like Telles, but very few if any would be able to hit a ball and get it to move like Thiago did.
I could bang a goal into the top corner from outside the box in my local park, it doesn't take away from the fact that Telles pulled it off in Champion's League game.
 

11101

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I can guarantee you will find plenty of Sunday league players who are able to catch that volley like Telles, but very few if any would be able to hit a ball and get it to move like Thiago did.
These are not Sunday League players.

Hitting a slow bouncing ball coming straight at you on the half volley with backspin is something any half decent player can do. Catching a full volley coming across your body is much harder to do.
 

Pogue Mahone

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Beyond the goal he ran the show the other night. Press resistant, and constantly playing the perfect ball to spring defence into attack quickly.

Who would have thought a world class player would look quality when he's a) fit and b) not playing in a dysfunctional and constantly changing midfield?
Come off it. He signed for Liverpool a year ago. This is the first time he’s been fit? And why have Fabiinho and Henderson been able to shine in a “dysfunctional and constantly changing midfield” while Thiago has not?
 

The Corinthian

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Beyond the goal he ran the show the other night. Press resistant, and constantly playing the perfect ball to spring defence into attack quickly.

Who would have thought a world class player would look quality when he's a) fit and b) not playing in a dysfunctional and constantly changing midfield?
Ah, the scouse revisionism.
 

Oranges038

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A full volley is far far harder to pull off than a half volley.
I could bang a goal into the top corner from outside the box in my local park, it doesn't take away from the fact that Telles pulled it off in Champion's League game.
These are not Sunday League players.

Hitting a slow bouncing ball coming straight at you on the half volley with backspin is something any half decent player can do. Catching a full volley coming across your body is much harder to do.

The bias in undeniable.

Thiago's strike is technically much harder to execute and aesthetically it's more pleasing, it's just a better goal.
 

Champ

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Great goal,

But Thiago is still at detriment to the way Liverpool play, long may he continue to play.
 

11101

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The bias in undeniable.

Thiago's strike is technically much harder to execute and aesthetically it's more pleasing, it's just a better goal.
Ah you're a Liverpool fan? Makes sense. Yes, it's up there with Maradona's goal in '86. Maradona did stumble a bit though so Thiago just edges it.
 

Pogue Mahone

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The bias in undeniable.

Thiago's strike is technically much harder to execute and aesthetically it's more pleasing, it's just a better goal.
:lol: Yeah, everyone is biased apart from you.

Thiago’s goal was more visually pleasing. Telles’ more difficult to execute. Ask 100 professional footballers and 99 of them would agree.
 

Oranges038

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Ah you're a Liverpool fan? Makes sense. Yes, it's up there with Maradona's goal in '86. Maradona did stumble a bit though so Thiago just edges it.
:lol: Yeah, everyone is biased apart from you.

Thiago’s goal was more visually pleasing. Telles’ more difficult to execute. Ask 100 professional footballers and 99 of them would agree.
Nope and I don't think 3 or 4 of you are everyone.

I know good technique when I see it, cutting across a moving bouncing ball coming toward you and keeping it low and swerving away into the corner like that is a much harder technique than punting a ball back across your body from where it came. Go out and try it if you don't believe me.
 

Pogue Mahone

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Nope and I don't think 3 or 4 of you are everyone.

I know good technique when I see it, cutting across a moving bouncing ball coming toward you and keeping it low and swerving away into the corner like that is a much harder technique than punting a ball back across your body from where it came. Go out and try it if you don't believe me.
If you genuinely can’t see the difference between striking a half volley coming straight at you and a full volley after letting the ball come across your body then you’re the one who needs to get out there and start kicking a ball.
 

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Not as impressive as it was made out to be honest. Great, clean strike but I was expecting better given the hype I'd read.

Given his technique and the way he can pass and ping the ball I would expect him to score more like this but he does not score enough.
Probably would have scored more but Richarlison took him out for the whole season in his first season in the UK. And, as with serious injuries, he picked up niggling injuries on the back of it thus never really getting to 100% fitness.

The shot itself is remarkable. I still believe the ball bounced and if it really didn't then my mind is blown! :eek:
 

Oranges038

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If you genuinely can’t see the difference between striking a half volley coming straight at you and a full volley after letting the ball come across your body then you’re the one who needs to get out there and start kicking a ball.
Nah, it's the way he hits it to generate the movement on the ball, that's the part that makes it better. Anybody with a bit of technique can punt a volley like the way Telles did.
 

DoubleDinhos

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Come off it. He signed for Liverpool a year ago. This is the first time he’s been fit? And why have Fabiinho and Henderson been able to shine in a “dysfunctional and constantly changing midfield” while Thiago has not?
This also isn't the first time he's been performing to a high level though. He was fantastic at the back end of the season when he got a run together with Fabinho in the middle and we won almost every game for the last three months. He's been great every time he's had some sort of defensive complement and hasn't had to play the role of deep-lying playmaker and defensive lynchpin in the middle. All the negativity around him last year came in games when the team was crippled by injuries and enforced rotation and he was adapting to a team in crisis. Now he's in a half-organised system again he's great. It's almost like he wasn't signed with the idea he'd been surrounded by a constantly rotating cast and tasked with defending in front of some combination of out of position midfielders and young players who had previously been on loan for Kidderminster.

Henderson and Fabinho are entirely different midfielders playing in an entirely different role. Also, neither had the time to shine in the dysfunctional midfield last year because they were either shifted back into defence or out injured.

Ah, the scouse revisionism.
Hardly revisionism. I admit he was below par when the team was a mess. But he's been our best midfielder when the team's not been.
 

Posh Red

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Nah, it's the way he hits it to generate the movement on the ball, that's the part that makes it better. Anybody with a bit of technique can punt a volley like the way Telles did.
Totally disagree. The ball is low and bouncing for Thiago, so far more margin for error than with the Telles hit, which has minimal margin for error.
 

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I can guarantee you will find plenty of Sunday league players who are able to catch that volley like Telles, but very few if any would be able to hit a ball and get it to move like Thiago did.
I was just about to say that. I'm sure I've hit a few volleys like that in my time, left foot and right foot, but I don't even know how I would go about doing what Thiago just done.

Not that the Telles strike wasn't brilliant either. Got a wow out of me at the time.
 

horsechoker

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Totally disagree. The ball is low and bouncing for Thiago, so far more margin for error than with the Telles hit, which has minimal margin for error.
Why don't those fly in every week then? Moreover why do players mishit volleys every week at the highest level?
 

roonster09

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I was just about to say that. I'm sure I've hit a few volleys like that in my time, left foot and right foot, but I don't even know how I would go about doing what Thiago just done.

Not that the Telles strike wasn't brilliant either. Got a wow out of me at the time.
:lol:
 

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Maybe not in the champions League but certainly in 11 a side and 7 a side. I have played football nearly every Saturday for 35 years and being small I have had to rely on skill and pace. Not that you will believe me. :wenger:
 

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It’s a really beautiful goal. Love the guy. Miss him at Bayern.
 

Posh Red

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Why don't those fly in every week then? Moreover why do players mishit volleys every week at the highest level?
I just meant relative to one another to be honest. Obviously they’re both great goals.

Edit: when I say ‘minimal margin for error’ that means it’s far less likely to happen.
 

roonster09

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Maybe not in the champions League but certainly in 11 a side and 7 a side. I have played football nearly every Saturday for 35 years and being small I have had to rely on skill and pace. Not that you will believe me. :wenger:
Good for you man, I hope one day you catch a sweet strike like Thiago did.
 

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I was just about to say that. I'm sure I've hit a few volleys like that in my time, left foot and right foot, but I don't even know how I would go about doing what Thiago just done.

Not that the Telles strike wasn't brilliant either. Got a wow out of me at the time.
You've hit volleys with both left and right foot outside the box and scored, but don't know how to hit a half volley?