Thiago is “in contention” to start Liverpool’s Premier League clash with Southampton, according to Jurgen Klopp.
The Reds head to St Mary’s for a tough game on Monday evening, looking to pull three points clear at the top of the table.
Thiago has still only started one game for Liverpool, having been plagued by injury problems since arriving arriving from Bayern Munich.
Speaking to reporters [via This Is Anfield], however, Klopp spoke positively about the midfield, hinting that he could start for the first time since the 2-2 draw away to Everton back in October:
Unfortunately, I don’t know him that long, a few months only, so I don’t know exactly. Even if I would like to answer the question I don’t know exactly what to say.
We see that he could play tonight, 20 minutes, is pretty special, I would say, because [he had] only two sessions with the team – that’s it.
One of the sessions was he was the ‘joker’, so I’m not sure you can really count that. But this game tonight gave us the opportunity to do it, because it was mainly about creating, and that’s obviously his best skill.
We will see. There’s a chance, he played 20 tonight, but I don’t know. I don’t even know how he’ll react until tomorrow, so we will see if he can get out of bed tomorrow or not, or if he has kind of muscle soreness or something like that.
He enjoyed the game, the few minutes, obviously. But how I said, I like speaking about Thiago – it’s absolutely no problem – but honestly, the boys who did the job so far did exceptionally well, I have to say.
So it’s not that we could not survive if he cannot start the next game, but it’s very good that he is now fit and is obviously in contention. I like that a lot.
Read Liverpool Verdict
Thiago showed during his brief cameo at Newcastle United how much of an influence he can have on this Liverpool team, so this is hugely encouraging news.
The 29-year-old is a special footballer capable of dictating matches and unlocking defences, also chipping in with underrated defensive work.
Against Newcastle, for example, Thiago not only completed 91 percent of his passes, but also won all five aerial duels.
Liverpool’s midfield has been magnificent for several years now, but their new star adds that extra sprinkling of genuine world-class magic to it.
