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?
He gave me the idea of a midfield 3 of Xabi, him and Stevie.
Oh boy… I will have sweet dreams tonight. 
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Putting the current midfield into 2008-09 team: only Thiago would have been able to make it to the starting 11. Meanwhile, Henderson/Gini would have replaced Lucas as 2nd choice for Mascherano/Alonso/Thiago.
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Rodrigo’s coming to Liverpool in the summer isn’t he.
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Been thinking a lot about that 08-09 team compared to our current squad. While it could be argued that the former underachieved in not winning any silverware, they were still a very good side — the spine was one of the best we’ve ever had. I think the issue we ran into was a lack of quality out wide, which United had in spades (both up front and in defense), and I feel that was the difference. Still can’t believe that team didn’t do more because that was a proper side.
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This is getting even better, he’s now training in Adidas boots all the way back from 2012! Weird. It’s like he forgets to bring his and then finds a pair of Suarez’s boots from his time here.
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With Thiago coming in and Gini leaving it is very likely that we will move from Heavy Metal to ‘Tiki Taka’.
We will see if that is a good or a bad thing.
Did we see it vs ManU already? Think there were a few situations where our players turned around and opted for a pass instead of bringing the attack to an end.
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Doubt that the principles will change, we will still have quite a few hard working midfielders after Gini. It’s about adding layers to our game, add more ingredients to our midfield mix. People often look at it too radical. The side changed under Klopp, but the grand principles always remained. We didn’t always have full backs like we have now, a false 9, hard working midfielders, CB’s who can play high up the pitch, proper goalscoring wide forwards. All that are all positions or better to say, roles. We should still be a damn good hard working side. I don’t see Klopp changing that. But becoming a better side in possession also played an important part in us being so successful in the last 2 years.
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So say the ‘Legends in their own Living Room’.!
Jurgen will not let his team stagnate and go stale…
Thiago is the next piece of the puzzle in the evolution that is LFC
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It’s a bit weird to hear that from players who I feel understand the game pretty well. Don’t they remember that they played with different types of team mates? Hamann letting the likes of Stevie and Xabi doing their thing? Barnes having the likes of Whelan and McMahon in midfield, Houghton on the opposite side for balance? I’m pretty sure Hamann is aware that having another Hamann alongside him wouldn’t get us too far. It’s more like we really didn’t see a lot of players of Thiago’s ilk at Liverpool, we perhaps have to learn the advantages they bring. Go back to some earlier Liverpool sides, we often agreed that we needed a controlling man there, someone who can both slow down or accelerate our game. He’s played 6 games for us, he’s not guilty of having injuries and that it took half a season for him to enter the side. But let’s not question the need for also a bit of the things he can bring. We can’t have 11 players charging forward all the time like blind animals. It’s not a FIFA game.
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