After a disappointing 2022-23 season and a likely midfield rebuild, the Spain international may find himself in an intriguing position next season
Thiago Alcantara’s presence on the pitch at Anfield on Wednesday was a brief reminder of what Liverpool will miss between now and the end of the season.
Thiago was allowed to stand on the sidelines while his teammates went through pre-match warm-ups for the visit of Fulham. The only pass he could be seen playing were to his young son with goalkeeper coach Claudio Taffarel.
Thiago’s season is over, and he will miss the final four games against Brentford, Leicester, Aston Villa, and Southampton due to a recurrence of a hip flexor problem that has plagued him for several months. A minor operation is now required to correct the problem, which means Jurgen Klopp will be unable to rely on one of his most experienced and pedigreed midfielders as the battle for a spot in the top four continues.
Thiago and his manager are both disappointed after missing more than three months of action due to other injuries throughout the season. When it comes to the Spain international’s career on Merseyside, fitness issues have never been far away, but the latest issue comes at a time when the club and their recruitment team are weighing exactly what is required this summer in terms of a significant restructuring of their midfield department.
Thiago will have played in only 30 of Liverpool’s 52 games by the end of the season, bringing his total to 97 after three seasons at Anfield. Klopp’s men have played 167 times in his three years on Merseyside, which means the former Bayern Munich man has missed 70 games. Aside from a handful of domestic cup games, when Thiago would have been a strong candidate to be rested anyway, it paints a picture of a fragile performer unable to stay fit. That was perhaps never more evident than before the Carabao Cup and Champions League finals last season.
Thiago was left in tears after failing the most recent fitness test, while he was forced to undergo a pain-killing injection in his toes to ensure he was cleared to play in Paris 12 months ago.
Those figures, however, pale in comparison to Naby Keita, who has played 129 times for Liverpool in five years for a team that has played 277 games during that time. During his own tenure, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has appeared 146 times in 333 matches, while Arthur Melo’s disastrous loan spell has seen him play for just 13 minutes in a 4-1 loss to Napoli in September.
Aside from Arthur, those figures are skewed by the fact that none of that trio would have started every game if they had been available 24/7, but the lack of durability and dependability has at times overburdened the likes of Fabinho, who has played 86 times more than Keita despite arriving in the same transfer window in 2018.
That is the unintended consequence of having so many players unavailable at critical junctures. While Klopp has always tried to rest and rotate players when possible, the absence of players like Thiago, Keita, and Oxlade-Chamberlain has likely resulted in muscle twitching for others in the squad over the last few years.
According to the influential website Transfermarkt, Keita has missed 83 Liverpool games due to injury, while Thiago has missed 60 and Oxlade-Chamberlain has missed 88, nearly half of which is due to a serious knee injury sustained in a Champions League semi-final against Roma five years ago.
With the departure of James Milner, who is set to join Brighton on a free transfer, Liverpool could lose up to four players who are currently listed as’midfielders’ on the club’s official website. The rapid rise of Stefan Bajcetic and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s newfound status as a roving full-back-midfielder will help to balance out the surplus to some extent, but quality, long-term additions are an absolute must this summer.
It’s why Liverpool is interested in Benfica’s Florentino Luis and Sporting Lisbon’s Manuel Ugarte, even if it’s unclear whether Liverpool will act decisively on either. This season, no player has played more for Benfica than defensive midfielder Luis, who has made 50 appearances. Ugarte is another defensive-minded operator described as a “combat vehicle” in the park by sources in Portugal. These kinds of metrics may be as important as on-field performance.
Inside the AXA Centre, speculation linking Thiago to a surprise return to Barcelona is likely to be ignored. When the new season begins, he will be in the final year of his contract, and his undeniable class will be more valuable for the next 12 months than any bargain sale for a player who will be 33 before the end of his contract.
Is there a school of thought that suggests, rather than lamenting the absence of a rare breed of midfielder, his status within the squad has been altered? Should the 2020 signing now be viewed as a luxury player who does not need to be over-exposed next season? He could be a valuable weapon for Klopp in the future if used sparingly.
To make that happen, Liverpool’s recruitment department will need to bring in battle-hardened, elite-level midfielders to replace the nearly mass exodus in the engine room.
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