Thiago to Liverpool:
Until February, this was a season of extraordinary brilliance from Liverpool. It added the Club World Cup title to its trophy cabinet, and for a time through the late fall and winter played some of the best football ever seen in the Premier League.
Its end to the season was rather less impressive: four defeats in six games before play was suspended that saw it go out of the Champions League and the FA Cup and lose its unbeaten league record (at Watford, of all places); then five wins in nine to round the season off, meaning it missed out on 100 points and the single-season record tally.
Not that many in Liverpool seemed to care Winning the title after 30 years, was all that mattered–and doing so with an 18-point gap over Manchester City and a 33-point gap over Man United and Chelsea certainly requires no further credentials.
It’s been a couple of weeks now since reports first emerged linking Liverpool with Thiago Alcantara, who has told Bayern he wants to leave. He has the benefit of being used to a pressing game, and he would add a more cerebral passing aspect to a Liverpool midfield that remains focused on energy. That, perhaps, indicates a willingness of Jurgen Klopp’s part to begin to evolve or at least diversify the playing style.