Thiago Alcantara hasn't exactly been presented with a favourable environment to settle on Merseyside since transferring from Bayern Munich to Liverpool in the summer.
The Spanish midfielder is having to perform in an empty stadium despite the club being renowned across Europe for fan support, and he's had to be deployed ahead of an unsettled defence given the injuries to Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez.
As a consequence of Liverpool's struggle for consistency, Thiago has been forced to essentially learn on the fly with his new teammates and although he's contributed great value in possession, his work off the ball has been somewhat problematic at times.
In Sunday's clash with Manchester City, the 29-year-old was booked inside the opening three minutes after attempting to slide tackle Ilkay Gundogan. He was then substituted on the 68th minute and Liverpool conceded three without him.
Thiago may not have prevented those goals from being conceded, but it is highly likely that Klopp removed him from proceedings because of his yellow card rather than anything performance-related.
It was not the first time Thiago has been presented with a yellow and more worryingly, his accumulation of fouls means that he's now ranked 28th in the division for total fouls committed.
The midfielder has committed 26 fouls so far, which is more than any other Liverpool player with the exception of Sadio Mane, who has made 33.
However, the difference with Mane is that he's played more than double the number of minutes.
In fact, of the top 100 players in England's top-flight for fouls committed, only two have played fewer minutes than Thiago, with those two players ranking 98th and 100th.
For Thiago to place as high as 28th despite playing only 750 minutes will be a concern for Jurgen Klopp, who has managed to ensure that his team have committed the fewest fouls in the league for the past two consecutive campaigns.
The new man is still very much learning the ropes at Anfield and he should certainly be afford more time and understanding, but his tendency to go to ground is unlikely to last much longer as Klopp looks to help the Spaniard improve his game.
