Liverpool need to find a successor for Gini Wijnaldum ahead of next season - but they might already have their man.
When Thiago Alcantara arrived from Bayern Munich for £25million last summer, the expectation at the time was that Wijnaldum would therefore be moving on.
But the Dutchman stayed put, and has since played almost every single game since because of the injury crisis Liverpool have been subjected to.
While from next season the pair look likely be split up, that initial thought on Wijnaldum being succeeded by Thiago should not be forgotten.
"Out of all the Liverpool midfielders, Thiago is the one who will benefit the most from having a spine behind him," said Josh Williams on the Analysing Anfield podcast.
"It is not a coincidence that he was looking really good before he got injured when Liverpool still had a reliable foundation.
"He played at Goodison Park with Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and Jordan Henderson. Now he has nowhere near the same steel.
"Thiago has had the solid structure taken away from him and he has looked a liability on the defensive side.
"What I was expecting of him, looking at Liverpool’s system, was something that Liverpool didn’t have before in terms of progressive passing in the middle of the park.
"He is a player who can do what Liverpool did in the last minute of the last Merseyside derby, even though it got chalked off.
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"It is that player who can offer the key to the door but from the middle - and while keeping the ball as much as Wijnaldum does.
"Wijnaldum does a lot of retention, but in terms of moving the ball forward, you get virtually nothing from him.
"According to the numbers, Thiago offers the same degree of ball retention but with the same amount of progression as Trent Alexander-Arnold.
"Thiago offers that penetration and dictation from the centre of the pitch but he has not been allowed to do that too much.
"I still think that Thiago is like Wijnaldum in that he is press resistant and clever and tactical, but with progression.
"I thought it was Wijnaldum’s replacement a year early - and I still think that to be honest."
It might take until next season, when the full roster of players is around him, but Thiago is still capable of showing his true colours at Liverpool.
"He arrived in October but he basically came into the team in the New Year, which coincided with a really difficult run for Liverpool on the pitch," added David Hughes
"I don’t put any of the bad form down to him but he has struggled without the ball at times.
"But there is no need for any snap judgements - look at his record and he is an elite player.
"He is still some way off 1000 league minutes and it is really early days. What has impacted the narrative is Liverpool’s results rather than his performances alone.
"He has looked good but some people were expecting a Lionel Messi-esque midfielder and he has been a victim of that a little bit.
"Once he gets measured on his own merit, it will even out.
"He was getting elevated to a level that no player could have met in the first few months at the club."
