When I see the long balls, I understand the point of having Thiago.
Hear me out, for me Thiago is an archetypal Guardiola player. Good on the ball, passes a lot, moves in his position and presses more than he defends. It was hard for me to understand why we would need him given that we already had so many CM. In fact, I believe that he was average at best for most of the season given the kind of player he is but for his defense, we were in shambles in a good portion of the season.
Now I remember how important long balls are for our game. It uses the speed of Salah and Mane and helps us to keep pressure. The game which highlights it the most for me is the one against Bayern. They could not handle Van Dijk's passes, and we all remember Mane's goal. Now I get it, Thiago is here to bring that in midfield. Fabinho and Henderson can pass, but Thiago is probably at a superior level and when Van Dijk or Hendo is out, we'll have Thiago now. He'll bring this to the team : long passes.
He is not only that but he sure can do that. I could not figure out why we signed him except that he was a very good player and was available at an extraordinary price but watching this video has enlightened me.
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