First Corona, then nasty foul: Thiagos suffering in Liverpool
After a long transfer hiccup, Thiago changes from Bayern to Liverpool – and then disappears from the radar. In Jürgen Klopp’s championship team, the Spaniard has been experiencing an odyssey to date: First Corona stops him, then a nasty foul including a knee injury.
Jürgen Klopp often looks grim when he’s actually happy, but on Sunday evening he looked grim and was: not happy. At least not completely.
Despite the superior 3-0 of his Liverpool FC in the Premier League top game against Leicester City, with which the club cracked an age-old record, 64 league home games in a row without defeat, the coach grumbled in an interview with Sky. The topic was, nothing new, the devastatingly tightly timed Corona program and the injury situation; for Klopp, one thing depends on the other, and he is not alone in this view.
People “tell us that we can rotate – who? We have offensive players, the rest are kids,” snapped Klopp, looking at his thinned top squad. “We can’t change ten or eleven positions. It’s impossible! We can’t just show up, we have to win football games.”
Liverpool FC: Thiago cried at Bayern farewell
Liverpool’s military hospital includes Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Alex Oxlade-Chamerblain, Fabinho, Jordan Henderson, Xherdan Shaqiri; against Leicester Naby Keita got it, and Mohamed Salah had Corona.
And then there is the Thiago case.
At the beginning of autumn, the midfield conductor from FC Bayern moved to Liverpool for a rumored 30 million euros, before there was hiccups because Thiago had more or less stood up in Munich, and bitter tears when saying goodbye – the Spaniard has been a incorporated Bayer since 2013, his band to the club was heavily braided.
Also in the video: “Hugged me and cried”: Rummenigge about saying goodbye to Thiago
At 29, however, Thiago wanted to see something different again, Leicester instead of Leverkusen. FC Bayern recognized the message. “He’s a great footballer and a great person,” said Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
Liverpool looked forward to a fresh element in the championship team; on a ball magnet that nimbly orchestrates the lecture, on creativity and esprit in the center. “Thiago can give our team something that we didn’t have before,” said Fabinho.
Thiago in Liverpool first ill, then fouled
In a distant, distant time before the German 0: 6 dismantling in Spain, Thiago was there when the Iberians averted a bankruptcy at the very last minute in the first leg (1: 1). Three days later he played his 39th international match, shortly afterwards Bayern’s departure was officially presented and Thiago was presented to a fairly great roar on Anfield Road.
At the end of November there is sadness. So far, only 135 minutes have been booked for Liverpool, 45 of them against Chelsea, the total distance against Everton. On his debut, he set a record right away, 89 ball contacts were not made in the detailed data collection of the Premier League (since 2003) within one half. “The quality of his passes is exceptional,” said Fabinho.
Then Thiago fell ill with Corona, not bad, only “mild symptoms”, as Liverpool announced. Two games off, returning to the city derby at Everton in mid-October, a brutal foul by Richarlison, who saw Red for his open-toed boarding on Thiago’s knee. “That was very borderline”, angry Klopp. Then Thiago missed four league games and all three in the Champions League.
Klopp: “Not sure if we will end the season with eleven players”
An operation was not necessary, “but he still needs his time,” said Klopp. “At first we thought it would be over soon, but it wasn’t. We are preparing it for the rest of the season, not for the first game that is possible. It is constantly improving. It won’t be too long . “
There is hardly a lack of possible uses. On Wednesdays, Liverpool will face Atalanta Bergamo in the Champions League before the “Reds” visit Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday. The following Tuesday is again the Champions League (against Ajax Amsterdam), on Saturday Wolverhampton is waiting.
“If we continue to play on Wednesday and Saturday at 12.30 pm, I am unsure whether we will end the season with eleven players,” said the grim Klopp and called for the TV contracts to be “adapted to reality”. In the corona pandemic, the world is “a different place than it was when the contracts were signed. The television companies have to talk together.” And ideally act.
Also in the video: Guerreiro makes it clear how big a transfer flop Schulz really was at BVB
Also in the video: Emotional moment: One appearance moves two coaches to tears
display
