Let’s hope not
He isn’t a regular with the Spanish NT since 2017-18. Although he was part of the WC qualifying and Euro squad, he only played bit-parts role. I think Spanish midfield is pretty loaded, but I think they won’t be able to resist the temptation to have player of his quality.
Ffs.
Still out. We can’t rely on this guy for more than .5 of a spot and we desperately need to bring in midfielders
Love the guy when he’s fit. That said, he’s the wrong side of 30 and has had reliability issues his entire career, so I’m never surprised when he misses out, sadly.
This is more of an indictment of our squad planning around midfield than Thiago, though. Since letting Gini go and letting Fabinho/Henderson/Milner each age two more years — coupled with keeping unreliables like Ox/Keita around — our midfield has stagnated. Considering it was the lynchpin that the successes of 18-19 and 19-20 were built on, it’s been frustrating to watch to say the least.
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It’s a shame our medical team did not catch the possible ear infection risks when he signed for us.
Didn’t they hear about chamomile on a bit of cotton? What hospital, you don’t even need it.
Sack the lot of them. 
I’m sure some will remember that I was against signing him when we where still on T.I.A.
Was concerned about his availability, his energy level and defensive qualities.
Under Klopp our midfield always used to be a real engine room. Even with Lallana, even with Can, even with +33 y.o. Milner, even with early Ox and Keita.
We all know Thiagos qualities and he did some lovely stuff here but we brought him in to make the best team even better or at least help to keep it there and help it to evolve.
Well, he did not and I’ve not been impressed by that signing overall.
I’ve predicted that his arrival will be the beginning of the end for our pressing game and that basically was what happened unfortunately.
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However he apoears from watching him that he is one of best tacklers and for winning the ball back, the press is failing from the front 3
Thiago is not the reason we were not able to transition. Neither is one player a reason for team to stop pressing or change drastically. We were crying for creativity and goals from midfield and Hendo - Milner - Gini trio was never going to provide that. We would have complained had we kept the same kind of midfield that Klopp isn’t getting the team to evolve and we are predictable expecting our full backs to create everything and are getting found out and hence not winning anything.
The transition was supposed to be a collective midfield evolution. Mix of players like Keita, Ox, Thiago and Fabinho being the core set of players and Hendo, Milly, Curtis, Elliott supporting them as required. All of them being available for majority of games being the key. The next set of players Curtis, Elliott plus any new signings in the above two age brackets ready to learn and slowly transition as mainstay in the team with Hendo and Milner slowly transitioning out. We should never have been this heavily reliant on Thiago and we wouldn’t have if the other midfielders weren’t this injury prone or drop levels the way Fab has suddenly.
Thiago was the main reason in midfield that we almost nipped 4 trophies last season.
The midfield couldn’t stay as it was. Henderson has declined physically. Wijnaldum was absolute shite in his last season here, was shite for PSG and now has a broken leg. Fabinho goes without saying.
If we’d renewed Gini’s contract we wouldn’t have the same quality as between 18-20, we’d just have a really poor imitation.
Thiago’s availability has been an issue but not his style or quality. He’s supposed to be an issue defensively yet he’s the only midfielder who can make a tackle.
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It’s not Thiago’s fault that everybody else around him have fallen apart. His availability is the only issue about him. Otherwise, he’s been a fantastic signing.
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You’re deflecting away from the bigger picture here GR, the players around him collapsing and failing to do their jobs properly just so you can come here 2 years on to say “I told ya so”?
If it weren’t for Thiago we wouldn’t have achieved what we did last season (no one saw you complaining then) and we’d be far worst off without him this season.
The only issue with Thiago is his availability.
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We did evolve with Thiago and became a better side.
Came to 1 point and 1 goal away from winning all trophies.
Had a slower start, not helped by getting smashed at Goodison. Was actually too aggressive when he came back. Far from the lazy opinion that was out there that “he slows our game down” or “he can’t defend”. Sounded like we brought Isco or Ozil or whoever of that ilk.
When he finished that last season at Bayern, he was geniunely one of the best CM’s in the world. We used to watch Bayern’s knockout stage CL games and he was controlling it brilliantly in the middle of the park.
More precise on that, Thiago is a player who you want to be able to either slow the game down or accelerate it. You can’t go charging forward all the time like on Fifa or whatever. We are a pretty vertical side, but to compete at the highest level, we need a mixture of qualities.
Finished his first season better and then only improved as it went on, finally being played regularly in his best role.
We didn’t buy Thiago to play 55 club games a season like a physical maniac, he never did that and it’s not his thing. Of course, it can happen that he’s more available here and less there, but we have to be realistic also with his age, etc.
As long as he keeps providing his usual/average availability, I’m completely fine with it.
The fact that we’ve become a team that misses a lot of the things he provides when he isn’t on the pitch proves that he was an important part of our latest evolvement.
Now we have problems a little bit everywhere, it’s not only one aspect of the game or one or a few individuals. He’s been playing better than a lot of players.
For me he’s not questionable. Was it all smooth all the time? No it wasn’t, due to different reasons. But he’s been a success so far and there’s no doubting that in my book.
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Unless Thiago is the one suggesting the wide forwards go extra wide, making us play a diamond or is doping Fabinho with sleeping tablets before each match I don’t think he can be held responsible for our form this season.
The point with Thiago is it wasn’t enough to just sign him. Given his availability, we also needed to sign another midfielder and ideally start phasing out Millie, Ox and Naby with a further (subsequent) midfield replacement. As I’ve been saying for some time, we need to start realising we can’t have seasons where we rest on our laurels and don’t turn over the squad with new first team blood. It was clear that we needed (and will continue to need) to sign 2-3 first team ready players every season in addition to the Elliots and Carvalhos who have the potential to grow into those roles.
Because of our transfer failings, we now need to sign at least two midfielders (to replace Ox, Naby and Millie) and possibly a third to be able to fill in for all the time likely to be missed by Hendo and Thiago. Up top we need to replace Firminho (and consider what to do about Salah who will once again only have 1 year left) while we probably also need another CB as Matip ages and both JoGo and Virgil look less imperious than they have. That’s a mammoth task and may mean we now go into 23-24 underdone (again) and only a couple of injuries away from having a PL season spiral out of control (again).
I don’t think that you ever can pin all problems on one player when a team faces difficulties. This is a multifactorial problem.
As others have said, Thiago was absolutely brilliant for us last season and we were a whisker away from becoming the best team ever, not least because he was with us and gave a different dimension to our midfield.
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