Thiago Alcantara
Jurgen Klopp says there is more to come from Thiago Alcantara after detailing the tactical tweak that helped Liverpool’s midfield get the better of Tottenham. Thiago made just his fifth Premier League start since joining from Bayern Munich in the summer and was named alongside Gini Wijnaldum and James Milner for the first time as a midfield trio. Klopp said he deployed Milner and Wijnaldum at the base of his midfield to allow Thiago the room to operate further forward.
Jurgen Klopp said “It was good. It was necessary as well. It was a good moment to show that we are still here. That is good to know. Now we go home and come back in a few hours for West Ham. We played today a slightly different position and it worked really well with Gini and Milly as a No.6. That was a proper, proper performance. I know Thiago can do much better than tonight but it was just an important step for all of us. The situation with Thiago was not easy. He came to Liverpool late then got ill, then was injured and was then playing immediately in a decisive position. So we thought that tonight, it might make sense to play it slightly higher on the pitch. What clicked tonight? Obviously, it was the decision in the last moments. “We had a big, big chance very early on with a wonderful play and Sadio was in a really good position. Missed that chance and pretty much the next situation was pretty much the Tottenham goal and that was the moment where you go ‘ah, here we go again’. “But then it was offside, didn’t count and then the boys just played a really good game. This situation in mind with the counter-attacks when Son scored, makes it really tricky to keep the ball and pass the ball because you have to increase the risk and we did that tonight. We made great runs, scored the [first] goal in a perfect moment, pretty much. It was a good goal to go into half time but we were quite aware of the struggle of Joel Matip with his ankle. No chance to play on.”
