Klopp Rubbishes Thiago as Cause of Liverpool’s Poor Form

Thiago Alcantara had arguably his best game of the season for Liverpool FC against RB Leipzig last night. Bolstered by the return of his midfield enforcer Fabinho, Thiago had a really good time spraying balls across the pitch. After the game, Jürgen Klopp was asked about Thiago. He had a typically blunt response:

I assume when you all look at Liverpool from Germany, people say [our problems are] to do with Thiago or whatever – that’s rubbish.

Thiago was good, they were all good. For the players who were new, they always needed time to get used to our gameplan, but Thiago doesn’t have that. Still, he improves week on week. It’s not a short-term project, it’s a long-term project and it was good.

It is very fluid how we work together. The boys played some nice passes and Thiago had a great chance as well. I think he could have had a shot on goal but instead passed.

While Thiago’s class was never in doubt, it was definitely still slightly worrying watching some of his recent performances. With some of the squad getting healthy and Fabinho adding some steel to the middle of the park again, it’s pretty clear that the performances of him and the rest of the squad were further hampered by players playing out of position due to necessity. If that continues, we’ll see Thiago Alcantara flourish again and again.