Thiago Alcantara is one of the world's best midfielders.

Regardless of what you think about his time at Liverpool so far, lest we forget that less than a year has passed since Thiago was the beating heart of Bayern Munich's treble-winning side.

As such, one can't helping thinking that when Thiago finally finds his stride at Anfield that almost nobody in the Premier League will be able to stop him.

Thiago's midfield brilliance

Besides, long before Thiago held the Champions League trophy above his head with Bayern, the Spanish maestro was quietly going about his business as one of the best passers in the sport.

If anything, there's an argument to be had that Thiago was the most underrated footballer of the 2010s, simply disappearing into the ether of Bayern's Bundesliga domination despite his brilliance.

But even then, you can rewind the clock even further back to Thiago's time with Barcelona, which the hierarchy at Camp Nou must surely look back on with unbridled regret.

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Thiago's time at Barcelona

The Blaugrana were spoilt for midfield talent at the turn of the decade, limiting the young Thiago's playing time, but boy would they take him over Miralem Pjanic and Riqui Puig right now.

Ok, perhaps that's a little controversial, but there's no denying that Barcelona could really have benefitted from keeping Thiago under lock and key when Pep Guardiola came knocking in 2013.

Besides, although his game time was often stunted due to some blokes called Andres Iniesta and Xavi - ever heard of them? - that's not to say that he didn't produce stunning moments for Barca.

And on our travels across the fun and random plains of the YouTube algorithm, we happened to stumble across one of Thiago's most underrated flashes of skill from his time in Catalonia.

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Thiago's outrageous first touch

No, we're not talking about a stunning goal or physics-defying assist, but rather one of the most badass examples of a 'how's your touch?' scenario that we've ever laid our eyes upon.

During a clash with Athletic Bilbao in the 2011/12 season, Thiago literally made the Cam Nou crowd  gasp with his superglue touch when a dizzying clearance dropped out of the sky.

Considering how high the ball was lumped into the Catalan air by the Athletic goalkeeper, it really is staggering to think how Thiago killed it dead in the way that he did, so check it out down below:

That ball looped so high that it probably had snow on the top when it descended.

Killed it dead

Sometimes there are just little things that world-class footballers do that make you realise just how talented they are and Thiago plucking the ball out of the sky like that is the perfect example.

And it just goes to show how spoilt Barcelona were during the Guardiola era, being able to call upon so much talent that Thiago would go on to leave just one season later without much fanfare.

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It's not as though Barcelona fell off a cliff without his presence in midfield, don't get me wrong, but if he can stop a club's descent in the way he can a ball's, then he might have been handy at times.