Three years have passed since the moment Thiago put on the Liverpool No. 6 shirt, the playing career of this pompous midfielder has not been as bright as we imagined.
When Liverpool reached an agreement to recruit Thiago Alcantara from Bayern Munich in September 2020, the majority agreed that this would be an important piece to improve the quality of the Red Brigade’s midfield. Just a month earlier, the Spaniard was a key factor in helping Germany to defeat Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final. It is clear that Thiago’s transfer fee could have far exceeded £25 million ($32 million) had he not been in the final year of his contract. And to get Thiago’s signature, Liverpool have overcome a series of heavyweights, including Manchester City, Manchester United and former team Barcelona.
But 3 years have passed since the moment Thiago put on the number 6 shirt of Liverpool, the playing career of this pompous midfielder has not been as bright as we imagined. In contrast, Thiago’s situation at the moment was extremely precarious. According to a source close to The Athletic, Thiago has just turned down a lucrative contract from the Saudi Pro League. However, there are other interests for the 32-year-old. More importantly, the BLD Liverpool side has not made any move to extend Thiago, despite his old contract with only 1 year left to expire.
When the 2022/2023 Premier League just ended, the idea of coach Jurgen Klopp letting Thiago leave is something few people think about. However, after witnessing two extremely quality additions, Mac Allister and Szoboszlai, respectively landing at Anfield, many people will have to think again. Not only Thiago, other midfield pillars like Fabinho and Jordan Henderson are all likely to be sold. Fabinho is unusually absent from the pre-season tour in Germany with the whole team, after it was confirmed that the Brazilian player had reached a personal agreement with Al-Ittihad. Captain Jordan Henderson is also very close to joining Al Ettifaq. A large-scale force purification revolution has been taking place at Anfield. Will Thiago be able to survive this “blood change”?
Whether Thiago is in Liverpool’s next season’s plan or not depends a lot on the arrangement of personnel in the middle of coach Jurgen Klopp. Congestion is what we can see. Even if Fabinho and Henderson leave at the same time, there are still 5 names competing for the position of play-making midfielder: Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and Stefan Bajcetic. Not to mention that Trent Alexander-Arnold is expected to become a prominent factor in Liverpool’s midfield next season, after brilliant performances in the final stages of the 2022/2023 season.
In contrast to Arnold, a hip injury caused Thiago to miss a total of 22 Liverpool games last season, missing the sprint race of the season. In the 3-2-2-3 system that coach Jurgen Klopp just built, the former Bayern star only appeared in 4 matches, all from the bench. Two of them are central midfielders on the left and once in the position of “number 10” on the right. In the previous 3 central midfield diagram, the “10” to the left was Thiago’s favorite position. But with the arrival of Mac Allister, the increasingly improved gameplay of Curtis Jones, Thiago is no longer on the German strategist’s main priority list. While in the opposite corridor, Szoboszlai and Elliott are the priority because of their youth and ability to break through a good defence. That wasn’t Thiago’s forte,
Overall, Thiago is still a quality player because of his tactical vision, smart play and ability to read situations very well. However, persistent injuries have affected his career in the foggy country too much. From the very beginning, bad luck has followed the 2019/2020 Champions League champion. Thiago had to take a month off from his debut against Chelsea because of Covid-19, before continuing to be friends with a hospital bed for another 72 days after Richarlison’s rough tackle in the Mersey
side derby against Everton in mid-October. 2020.
In total, Thiago missed 71 matches for various reasons during his three years with Liverpool, with an absence rate of up to 42.3%. No season has Thiago’s appearances in the Premier League exceeded 20. Sadly, that number of matches has steadily decreased over time (20 games in the 2020/2021 season, 17 games in the regular season. 2021/2022 and 14 matches in the 2022/2023 season).
Coach Jurgen Klopp wants to rebuild a new squad that is younger and more combative to bring Liverpool’s Gegenpressing style back to its original level. That’s why limited contributors like James Milner, Naby Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Arthur Melo all had to leave. From many angles, Thiago is stuck between leaving or staying. Recently, journalist Dean Jones from GIVEMESPORT updated the 32-year-old midfielder’s situation as follows: “As far as I know, Liverpool are not forcing Thiago to leave this summer. However, if he finds a suitable landing, the club will also create the best conditions. Part of the reason for this lies in the income that Thiago is enjoying at Anfield. Liverpool are looking to purify the squad to welcome more rookies, so leaving Thiago will bring a good solution.”
So far, Liverpool has never been a team that pays too high compared to the common level of other teams in the Big Six. However, their salary fund has shown signs of increasing over the past 3 years. Specifically, Liverpool’s salary fund for the 2020/2021 season is £132 million, increasing to £136 million in the following season, before touching the £160 million mark in the 2022/2023 season. Of these, Thiago is currently the third highest-paid player in the team with £200,000/week, just behind Virgil van Dijk (£220,000/week) and Mohamed Salah (£350,000/week). However, Thiago’s contributions are simply disproportionate.
In the other direction, recently there has been some criticism directed at Liverpool when they tend to easily lose important stars but do not collect any transfer fees from partners. Notable examples include the case of Emre Can, Georginio Wijnaldum, Divock Origi and Roberto Firmino. Even with Chamberlain and Keita, despite their poor performance, they also spent nearly 100 million pounds, but when they left, they were on a free transfer. If they continue to stay instead of moving, Thiago and Joel Matip will be the next two names that will leave for free next summer.
Obviously as mentioned above, Liverpool letting Thiago leave in the summer of 2023 is optional but is an option worth considering.
