It was a frustrating end to a special year for Liverpool fans after Jurgen Klopp’s men were forced to settle for just a point away at Newcastle United on Wednesday night.
Although they did probably do enough to win the encounter on the day, it was a far from classic Liverpool performance and they often looked as disjointed as they did in the fixture against West Brom at Anfield a few days earlier.
The Reds still dominated play for long periods of the match, yet, it was only following the introduction of Thiago Alcantara with just under 20 minutes to go that we saw an increase in urgency and a more penetrative edge to their possession play.
In the eyes of many, Thiago is already considered one of Liverpool’s most integral players, which seems slightly outlandish given that he’d only made two league appearances prior to his cameo vs Newcastle.
However, his illustrious career prior to arriving at Anfield, added with the eye-catching performances he put in during those two appearances against each of Chelsea from the bench and Everton from the start reaffirmed why there was such excitement when he joined the club in the summer.
His ability to effortlessly hit a catalogue of different passes from every area of the pitch makes him a unique asset in possession for Liverpool, and a nightmare for the opposition.
According to FBref, the 29-year-old was successful in 21/25 attempted passes in his 17 minutes on the pitch at St James’ Park. Although as we see in the below, these passes weren’t simply short and sideways to maintain possession, but instead imposing and penetrating balls often through defenders and into dangerous areas in the attacking third - something Liverpool lacked in the game up until his introduction.
Liverpool already have an elite set of midfielders, yet, none offer what Thiago can in terms of his ability to promptly thread pinpoint passes into forwards in dangerous areas of the pitch.
What aids his passing capacity is a unique ability to disguise the destination of his pass with varying body shapes and feints. The Spanish international will quite often shape up to play the ball long, before playing it into the feet of a forward occupying a good space unmarked.
Or sometimes you’ll see him hit precise threatening 30-yard cross-field passes with almost no backlift, catching defences cold and putting Liverpool's forwards in excellent attacking positions.
A lot of his ability to do this is directly linked to his reading of the game and capacity to map out attacking sequences before he’s often even received possession of the ball.
Take the below as an example, here Thiago looks to be receiving a pass in a fairly safe position from a Newcastle point of view. They have plenty of men behind the ball and will most likely be confident they can limit his passing options when he receives possession.
Yet, the below shot is from just before the above image and exhibits his head movement prior to him receiving the pass. Note how the former Bayern Munich midfielder is already scanning around the pitch and spots the run of Trent Alexander-Arnold out wide.
This means when he receives the pass, he’s not focussing on the next phase of the attack and already knows where he’s going to play the ball. The result of this is that he can quickly fire a perfectly weighted ball out to Alexander-Arnold before Newcastle have become aware of the threat of the wing-back racing forward.
Thiago’s profile in many ways resembles that of an NFL quarterback, sitting in a deep position and orchestrating the play ahead of him.
His skill in hitting almost any area of the pitch with a pass is further aided by an ability to press aggressively without the ball, battle well with opponents in duels on the floor, and even in the air - he notably finished Wednesday’s game having won 5/5 of his aerial duels.
It’ll be no coincidence based on all of this that Liverpool’s attacks per minute reached it’s highest average at 0.84 in the final 15 minutes of the match, with Thiago on the pitch.
When fit, there’s a case for Thiago to be starting every game. However, he’s perhaps most crucial in matches against bottom ten sides. This may seem counterintuitive given that these sides usually have players of lesser quality and should therefore be easier opponents for the Reds to face.
Yet, these teams usually opt to forgo ambition to win the game and will instead look to sit deep with as many players between the ball and their goal as possible. This is nothing new for Klopp’s men, and they’ve usually done a good job of finding routes through these kinds of low block systems in seasons gone by.
But their record of just one win vs the Premier League's current bottom four does indicate that it’s a tactic that’s begun to cause them issues. With Thiago on the pitch, however, Liverpool will have a weapon that they’ve so far missed.
Although football is a team game, there’s a strong case based on the above and from what we’ve seen so far that the midfielder could be the decisive factor in turning some of these frustrating draws back into victories in similar fixtures in the coming weeks and months.
