It’s fair to say Liverpool fans were encouraged by Thiago’s 45-minute debut against Chelsea on Sunday.The Premier League champions announced the signing of Thiago on Friday and were excited to see him named on the bench for the trip to Stamford Bridge.With Chelsea going down to 10-men minutes before half-time and captain Jordan Henderson suffering from a thigh injury, Jurgen Klopp decided to bring Thiago on at the break.And it proved to be a very good decision.The Spaniard pulled the strings to help Liverpool win 2-0, registering some pretty impressive stats.Thiago completed 75 passes during the second-half - more than any Chelsea player managed during the entire game. It was also a Premier League record by a player to have played a maximum of 45 minutes.
Not bad after just one training session with the team.
Liverpool fans can’t contain their excitement over the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich midfielder and have been consuming every piece of content relating to the Spaniard ever since his arrival.
And they will enjoy the video Liverpool’s official YouTube account has just posted. That’s because they’ve released a 5:40 video showing every touch Thiago had during his impressive debut.
Sit back and enjoy:
One trait you may have noticed about Thiago during that video is the disguise on his passes. The world-class midfielder will play short pass, short pass, short pass, and just when it looks as though he’s going to play another simple five-yard pass, he’d whip the ball into the feet of an attacker. Suddenly, Liverpool have the ball in a promising position.
Why is this so effective? Well, it makes the opponent think he’s passing to one player as they start moving to close them down. That is when he quickly whips the ball forward to a dangerous player, meaning the opponent is out of position. He always has that opponent guessing.
His pass after 16 seconds in the below video explains it perfectly as he plays the ball into Mohamed Salah’s feet, tricking Mason Mount into thinking he’s giving it to Fabinho.
And here’s another example:
After his 45-minute cameo, his new manager was very pleased with what he saw.
"We decided to bring Thiago on early because it was 11v10 and a player like him can command the rhythm. It was the perfect start for him and the boys helped him massively," Klopp told BBC Sport.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Klopp added: "Top timing. He played with Spain and trained with Munich so he's fit, that's not a problem. He needs to get used to his team-mates, but when they went one man down it became the perfect game for him.
"I liked his game a lot. Defensively it was tricky for him, but offensively, with the ball, that's him, he wants to pass the ball."