It was both Ox and Thiago’s first start back after months out yet Ox looked lost at sea and ‘needs time’ whereas an unfit Thiago still controlled the game and showed the difference in class.
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Forget Jones, I doubt that Ox can even compete with Elliott next year.
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Both? Oxlade and Chamberlain or the 3 of them Oxlade-Chamberlain as well?
As for Thiago he seems to have gone missing on this forum just like the 3 above did in the 1st half against Saints. 
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Well, obviously Thiago created massive difference when he replaced Henderson. In other words, Jones and Chamberlain must be benched against United. If Klopp still wants to use Jones, he must bench either Henderson or Gini.
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This lads only played in 5 games for us. 90 minutes twice, two 45 minute cameo’s and a 17 minute sub appearance after returning from long term injury, yet every time he’s stepped foot on the pitch he’s been the best player on the park by a country mile.
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Fucks sake. Wish I’d seen this at the time. Absolutely pathetic comment. You should be ashamed.
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Like I thought I had watched Thiago before and understood his ability…
I hadn’t.
He is a beautiful footballer and makes the game look effortless… At one point he took a chest high ball, with his control (I don’t remember if it was his head, chest or thigh) he broke their press, was on their defense and passed forward within a split second…
He seems to cover the entire pitch but hardly ever runs… It’s insane.
Van Dik brought a huge amount to this team offensively, Thiago is critical to enabling us to play how we did as he seems the only player capable of playing the type of accurate long balls Virgil did and starting attacks at pace.
He makes me remember it’s not the tactics we have wrong, it’s the round pegs trying to fit in a square peg trying to do what they can’t… Our game was built on playing fast, being accurate in long balls, being unpredictable…
Stay fit… Please…
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Didn’t see the Everton match and only caught the highlights afterwards, this is the first time I’ve seen Thiago fully control a game, he did for his cameo against Newcastle but he showed what he could do and I think it makes me doubly sure if he had been on the pitch against Brighton and WBA and had the lead we would have doubled it.
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That first pass is why he is just amazing, any of our other midfielders pass to the full back in that position.
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I think he did the same for Sadio’s goal which we were cheated out against the bitters.
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I think there’s a hint of unfairness. Our strategy was to attack through the wings. Thiago has been brought to create another strategy.
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Yeah, it’s easy to fall asleep thinking that we only need hard working midfielders or that we can only be successful if they’re all war dogs. Of course, there needs to be a bottom line of hard work from all of our players. But every now and then you get genuine footballing quality, coupled with a very responsible defensive game. Opens up the mind immediately, if someone wasn’t aware that there are also other types of players.
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It’s not a slight on them at all, and yes a big part of our tactics is to use our widemen (our fullbacks)… The problem is if that’s all you do, or if the players playing that role don’t have the same skillset.
My point is that 98 out of 100 midfielders in the video shown makes the obvious pass to the fullback, he is in space and has space to attack into…
Thiago is in the 2 out of 100 (say De Bruyne) who has looked up, seen Shaqiri within the lines and if he executes his pass we get a goal scoring chance… That is a level of vision, awareness and balls to make that pass and we are bloody lucky we have a player willing to do so.
Yep, as I say above it’s no slight on Gini, on Hendo… They formed a workhorse midfield which pressed and worked and covered to allow our fullbacks to be massive creative outlets. We did alright as well, few trophies on the way.
The problem now is there is a blueprint to stopping us, you condense space, let us have the ball, crowd our front 3, push our fullbacks into poor crossing zones…
The club needed to evolve tactically, I think Keita was the first solution, a midfielder who broke the lines with dribbling, who looked/played forward 1st rather than worry about covering for the fullback… Sadly he (and Oxlade who again is similar) were injured… Then we get Thiago who is simply one of the best passers in the world… I expect with him playing our offensive game jumps up several levels.
As a final point, this team needs Hendo, it needs Gini… You simply need the guys who will carry the piano, we’ve struggled recently because they’ve ended up carrying it whilst trying to play.
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Great post @Draexnael. We are really unlucky with Keita and Chamberlain, otherwise we would have evolved tactically couple of seasons ago.
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Thiago picked his 5 a side.
- himself
- his brother
- his cousin
- former La Masia mate
- de Gea over Neuer and Alisson
Sell him
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To be fair he has played 3 games with Becker some of the twits on Twitter will jump on this but makes sense.
After all if you enter a 5 a side you usually choose your mates.
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Any of those a CB?