What next for Thiago? Liverpool’s No. 6 hits breaking point with injury record – Liverpool FC

In some ways, this season assessment for Thiago may have been written again in August: an outstanding participant with a phenomenally poor harm file for Liverpool.

Probably the most gifted gamers of his era from each a tactical and technical perspective, Thiago has nonetheless been hampered by a sequence of accidents, each effectively earlier than and through his Anfield keep.

That wasn’t any totally different this previous season, although when it comes to his output when he was obtainable, there’s an enormous argument for the No. 6 being up there as one of many prime outfield performers.

The difficulty is, that was so way back it’s exhausting to recall – particularly contemplating it was throughout a interval few Reds followers would wish to purposely relive.

On a extra forward-looking foundation, whereas current experiences recommend Thiago received’t be provided an prolonged keep and his contract expires a yr from now, questions may be requested over what his extra fast future is?

The place, within the new setup, is his greatest position? Will he have a beginning spot, or is he best-utilised as a squad possibility given his quality-to-brittleness ratio?

Or ought to he be allowed to depart this summer season if he feels as much as a brand new problem, with a minimum of two midfielders sure to reach?

Thiago has such unbelievable high quality that letting him go away feels absurd – however attempting to construct a brand new workforce round somebody who didn’t hit 40 % of begins in Premier League or Champions League matches, once more, is an equally poor concept.

The most effective, with out query

Rewind, then, to the beginning of the season.

Not the very begin, that might be an excessive amount of – in any case, Thiago acquired injured on the opening day in opposition to Fulham.

However after that, from his return off the bench within the battering at Napoli, he instantly seemed much better than everybody else – principally as a result of he’s, after all.

From the primary swivel of the hips and move ahead in that sport, he was sharper, extra incisive, extra aggressive than another midfielder within the Liverpool squad, at a time when the center of the park was being shredded repeatedly.

This isn’t to say he stopped it taking place, however issues would have been far worse with out him there, and it’s simple to look again at that horrible interval and overlook it.

For a interval he sat in beside Fabinho in a double-pivot; for a interval he seemed like a grizzled ball-winner as an alternative of certainly one of Europe’s most gifted, artistic passers.

By way of a run of a dozen or so league video games both facet of the World Cup, Thiago was primarily the one performer within the Reds’ delicate centre as Jurgen Klopp chopped and adjusted formations and mixtures, principally to no avail in any respect.

Even not being utilized in his most ordinary, useful roles of play-progressor, our Spaniard had the look of somebody giving it every little thing and being fairly good at all of it – besides when play was behind him, the place he was often as found-out as Jordan Henderson or Fabinho with a scarcity of restoration capacity.

Then we had been hammered by Wolves, then Thiago damage his hip, then it was over.

Probably the most predictable, with out query

From February 4 by means of to the tip of the Premier League season, Thiago performed 96 minutes of a doable 1,620.

4 appearances off the bench, sandwiched between two harm absences, was the sum whole of his second half of the marketing campaign.

He was unavailable, injured, for exactly half the top-flight matches, plus lacking another seemingly because of rotations and relaxation.

Add in his unavailability for both Champions League leg in opposition to Actual Madrid and the actual fact we’ve seen it earlier than, and it doesn’t paint an awesome image of what Thiago is: inherently unreliable for those who’re pondering of him as a first-choice participant.

None of that is his fault, his problem. His accidents are neither new nor a secret, however began method again when he was nonetheless at Barcelona.

Constructing a facet round him was all the time going to be problematic, and fairly other than the query of recent signings, there’s the actual fact Curtis Jones made himself very a lot at residence and a deserved member of the workforce within the place which Thiago would, nominally, now fill on this system.

Whereas Jones doesn’t have the pedigree, mentality or the rest of Thiago at this stage, he put collectively the primary actual run of kind within the new form of any midfielder within the squad, a run which says: I can play this position on this workforce.

By way of harm, absence or incapacity, no person else did sufficiently. And that very a lot consists of Thiago.

What’s subsequent?

That’s the £5-or-6 million query, isn’t it: what to do subsequent?

Maintain him and pay out round that quantity in wages, for no matter he is ready to provide the workforce for an additional yr, or search to recoup roughly that sum and permit him to depart?

Thiago won’t wish to, after all, and no person needs to be dissatisfied if that’s the case – he’s nonetheless a participant who may begin and dominate in opposition to the easiest groups.

It’s simply that we will’t assure he’ll be obtainable for these fixtures, and if another person is a first-choice, shouldn’t they play these largest of video games anyway?

The protected cash is on one other yr of precisely the identical, as a result of Liverpool have been so obnoxiously inert on the subject of altering the squad.

So there it in all probability is: half a yr of accidents, half a yr of being out and in of the workforce and going from making followers marvel what might need been to creating them barely shrug, as his time on Merseyside attracts in direction of an finish.

Finest second: Maybe his efficiency within the 1-0 residence win over Man Metropolis.

Worst second: Destroyed in midfield in opposition to Wolves after which picked up what was successfully a season-ending harm into the cut price.

Position subsequent season: Squad participant, which stays a ridiculous factor to say.