to those that watch him, does he offer enough defensive cover in a mid along with Pogba and Fernandes. That's an issue we have even when Matic plays, teams who break from mid, we've no runners to track them. We rely on Matic's positioning which is very good but good teams will still pass that, when they do we don't have that runner in mid to get back and make a tackle. Does this lad offer that, I know from previous posts he's very good on the ball and that but I'm, just wondering what his defensive coverage is like.
Thiagos defensive contribution is vastly underrated in my opinion. Going by the statistics (amount of tacklings and percentage won, interceptions, etc.) he is our best midfielder regarding the defense for several years now. He was also the best in those statistics when Vidal was still with us and Martinez was in better shape.
I love Thiago, for me he is probably the most complete (not the best!) midfielder around. He can do everything, win the ball, long passes, short passes, dribble past opponents, score goals...
If it wasn't for injuries I think he would be rated as equal to Xavi and Iniesta by now.
He is a terrific player on his day and just beautiful to watch at.
Additionally he is also a very likeable guy.
I will miss him a lot, even though we have his (probably already superior successor) in our squad with Kimmich.