Despite Liverpool’s length injury list of late, Paul Dickov has explained that Thiago Alcantara is the one player that Jurgen Klopp’s side miss the most.
The Scotsman admitted that the Spain international has had a ‘stop-start start to the season’ alongside many of his Reds teammates but believes it is the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich midfielder that makes the FA Cup champions ‘tick’.
“Injuries have a major part in playing in it,” the 49-year-old told Sky Sports (as quoted by Rousing The Kop) when speaking about Liverpool’s slow start to their Premier League campaign. “To lose Luis Diaz, Jota as well who’s been in and out all season. Andy Robertson’s just coming back in the last few games, Trent’s been out, Konate, Matip. When you’ve got that amount of players out, there’s no consistency in selection, there’s no consistency in performances from week to week.
“I’ve named many-a player there, but Thiago is the big one for me. He’s the one that really makes them tick, he’s the creative one in midfield and he’s had a stop-start start to the season as well. So, you put all that together and it’s really difficult for them, but there’s no doubting there’s something special about the Champions League and Liverpool. They always seem to turn up and put in the performances that they need.”
The midfield maestro was missing with an ear infection during our dismal loss to Nottingham Forest at the weekend and was not involved during our 3-0 defeat of Ajax on Wednesday night in the Champions League.
We certainly hope that the 31-year-old hasn’t sustained an injury of some sort and expect to see him involved against Leeds United at the weekend.
Against Forest on Saturday, and during the early stages of our clash with the Dutch champions, our midfield was pretty much non-existent and the cleverness of our No. 6 was sorely missed.
He has the ability to unlock defences with his incredible passing ability and controls the middle of the park whenever he’s in the side.
The likes of Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota are also huge losses at the moment and we’ve not had much luck with injuries so far this term.
We have five games to play before the Qatar World Cup begins next month – let’s hope that when we return to action on Boxing Day that Klopp has a full squad to pick from.