Bit of a stinker today but he’ll learn.
Thiago Alc*ntara | Still exists
- Thread starter horsechoker
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Yeah, perfect holder in the modern game. Positionaly sound, great awareness and fantastic control of the game.
We mock United here a lot when it comes to him, but what the feck Barcelona was thinking?
Well he did have Busquets, Xavi and Fabregas ahead of him at the time
They should have released Fabregas (as they did) and put Busquets along with Thiago. Xavi was slowing down, so baffling decision.
This thread finally made me understand what 'it costs an arm and a leg' really means.
It's Barcelona so yeah, that's kinda par for the course.
A terribly run football club.
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The best part is that he had a clause in the contract which stated he had to feature in stipulated amount of minutes (and he was close to that actually, only for them to bench him despite winning the league with a large margin). And if he didn't the release clause went from 90 to 20 million. Absolute wreck of the club for a good few years now.
That was really weird indeed.
The Barcelona board run the club as badly as the Glazers. The only difference is that the Glazers don’t really care about results while the Barca board do, but they are just failing miserably.
Why did Pep sell him all those years ago? Was it because he couldn't fit him in because of xavi Iniesta and Busquets?
It wasnt Pep, he brought him to bayern. I think vilanova was barca coach at that time.
It saddens me to say it, but he is a much better player than Pogba. Controls the game.
Made a mistake for the pen no doubt, but thought he looked good.
Pep didn't sell him. Pep was gone in 2012, Thiago left in 2013.
Oh okay cheers.
Why is that everything has to be compared against Pogba ? Both are different players. Its not his mistake that he is being tried in a double pivot and asked to defend.
Thought he did well, didn’t need to go in on Werner as I think he would have been blocked anyway, but his passing is so crisp and he controlled the middle for us, easier to do with 10 men of course but it kept us constantly moving putting numbers in Chelsea’s box.
Shocking how few people know that he is one of the best midfielders in the world for the past 3 years. He is insanely talented. Liverpool signing him means a cake walk for the next couple years if COVID doesn’t stop sport again
He is just one of those players, Carrick, Modirc, game controllers that goes under the radar a lot.
Pep actually signed him for Bayern when he left Barca. Guardiola‘s brother was Thiago’s agent at the time.
Indeed.
It was same in germany I think, didn’t quite get the respect he deserved, but the bosses at Bayern knew what they had, he is a gem of a player.
He is a midfielder you can just give the ball to in any circumstance, and is resistant most of the time to being pressed. He will just dictate a midfield, a top class player.
I said as much months ago in the should we sell Pogba thread. Word of warning you're going to get a lot of people on here disagreeing with you. Thiago is a special player. It's amazing how the Scousers had a free run at him.
None of the "you'll need to train 3-4 months to play in a Klopp midfield" with this guy. Bossed it with zero prep.
It helps when they seem to be the dominant team in the PL. Man Utd would have stood a chance if Alex Ferguson is still at the club.
He’s just miles ahead of anyone in Liverpool’s midfield. Klopp couldn’t coach Thiago anything, Thiago is a world class player. World class players don’t need eased in.
Bossing against 10 men and giving away a pen?
I feel like being an integral part of a treble winning team just a few weeks ago counts as at least three prep.
Klopp seems to ease up-and-coming players in gently, while throwing in the top players directly in the team because they can handle it. It's almost like you need different approaches with players at different stages of their development.
He probably picks the team and parks in Klopp's space.
Fecking Liverpool....
The guy made more passes in 45 mins of football than any Chelsea player did in 90! Most of them forward, I think he will be one of the signings of the year.
I'm probably wrong but I could've swore Scholes made 100+ passes in a single half in the early 2010s.
But did he only play the one half? I think that was the point of the statistic cited here, regardless of the number of passes in any half.
Where are all the United fans who were saying he wasn't what we needed? Or we were well stocked in midfield?
The guy is class and all those who said otherwise don't know football.
The guy is class and all those who said otherwise don't know football.
Yeah, I thought so anyway. I'm thinking it was in a 3-2 loss at home to Spurs where he came on in the second half. As I said, I'm probably misremembering, though!
An some extra prep by playing for pep.
Easy to say with hindsight. The thing is Barcelona can't wait. They're pushed to win everything in sight every year back then. Thiago was riddled with injuries in his final season with Barcelona (continued for quite awhile at Bayern even). Cesc was more established and wanted to stay, while Thiago camp pretty much pushed for the move IIRC after not guaranteed more gametime. This is unreasonable as even Xavi was slowing down, that's still one heck of challenge. Nothing to guarantee. Just conflict of interest, which didn't play out badly for all parties. They still won Treble after getting Rakitic. Barcelona transfer mismanagement later on is another story altogether