I know people see this transfer as a weird one because there is a legitimate question in terms of why do we need another midfielder, especially if Gini signs a new deal.
I'm not debating if we should or should not get him, but I think that if it ends up happening then this probably indicates a willingness to, firstly, diversify the way we play and, secondly, a willingness to have some serious depth in order to effectively challenge for more than one competition. I also would not underestimate the importance of having a player that fits the mentality of the squad and that can bring an element of experience in terms of retaining a tittle and staying hungry.
Thiago being in the squad means added versatility. Keita, Ox, Hendo, and Gini are all players that fit perfectly in a 3 men midfield. Thiago does too, but he can also be a perfect box to box guy in a 2 men pivot with Fab. He's good defensively, but he's also very good on the front foot and transitionning from defense to attack. This essentially means that you can, when you need to, switch to something like 4-2-3-1 (maybe Takumi or even Salah as AM) or something like a 3-4-3 when you want to maximize TAA and Robbo's offensive input without necessarily having them run giant laps back into defense all game long because you can spread a 3 men back line in front of two intelligent and highly ''skilled at pressing'' guys like Fab and Thiago.
All I am saying is that it's not black or white like people seem to think. Depending on what Klopp has in mind, we could actually need a guy like Thiago and make good use of him.
Edit: this train of thought is also because I basically just read a piece in which Lijnders was talking about the need to diversify the way we play next season as he says teams have begun choking Robbo and TAA as they undertsood that those two guys are our main creative threat and have started adapting
« Last Edit: Jul 23, 2020 09:27:30 pm by PolarBearRed »
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