Liverpool star Thiago Alcantara has been outstanding of late but Steve McManaman was critical of his performance against Villarreal on Tuesday.
The Reds were 2-0 up from the first leg and looking to see off Villarreal in style at El Madrigal.
Instead, Villarreal put up an incredible fight as they scored twice in the first half through Boulaye Dia and Francis Coquelin.
Liverpool had to come and improve after the break and that’s exactly what they did.
Luis Diaz made a huge impressed as he came on at half time, scoring Liverpool’s second after Fabinho had found the net.
Sadio Mane put the gloss on a 5-2 victory for Liverpool, booking the Reds’ spot in the final against either Manchester City or Real Madrid.
This was far from a perfect night for Liverpool and it proved to be much harder work than Jurgen Klopp would have wanted.
A few players weren’t quite at their best against Villarreal and Thiago was arguably chief among them.
The Spanish midfielder has been absolutely outstanding in recent weeks and particularly excelled against Manchester Untied last month.
You would have expected to see Thiago shining back in Spain but it just didn’t happen.
Thiago gave the ball away far more regularly than Liverpool fans would expect but did keep battling away in the engine room.
Thiago’s display drew criticism though with ex-Liverpool man McManaman far from impressed with his performance.
Speaking on BT Sport after 49 minutes of Liverpool’s win over Villarreal, McManaman suggested that Thiago had been ‘awful’.
McManaman did praise Thiago for his ‘brilliant’ performances of late but felt he just wasn’t controlling the game as you would want.
“He’s been brilliant over the last few weeks but he’s been awful today,” said McManaman. “This is the night where you want him to control the game, spray passes around, be positive,” he added.
Liverpool won’t be too worried; it’s just one game after all.
Thiago has been exceptional of late and we would expect to see him at his best again in the very near future.
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