Jurgen Klopp’s assistant Pep Lijnders has been speaking about new signings Thiago Alcantara and Diogo Jota ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Lincoln City tomorrow.
The Premier League champions reportedly spent an initial £20 million on the Spanish midfielder, while Portugal international Jota cost £41 million from Wolves.
Speaking about the £20 million signing from Bayern Munich, Liverpool’s official site quote Lijnders as saying: ‘[Thiago] will make sure that the team will evolve and make the next step.
‘Overall, it’s important for the team to stay unpredictable, that from each position we can play the last pass and we can speed up as much as possible in the small passes.
‘We brought a solution for the upcoming problems hopefully.’
Just by watching the 29-year-old make his debut against Chelsea, you can see the type of unpredictability Lijnders is referring to.
Thiago set a new Premier League record for most passes in one 45-minute spell since Opta began recording data with 75 successful efforts.
His display showcased his wide variety of passing, including curled passes to the back post, cross-field switches and punched deliveries through the lines.
He is now a key for Liverpool. The ex-Barcelona midfielder has many strings to his bow.
When Klopp’s men are finding it difficult to break a side down, the luxury of having Thiago and his vast skills will be invaluable in allowing the side to switch things up mid-game.
That flexibility is clearly something that’s been discussed at Melwood judging by Lijnders’ comments, and they now have the perfect player to execute a variety of systems.
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