Thiago Alcantara Responds To Claims He 'Doesn't Play The Liverpool Way' And 'Slows The Game Down'

Prior to last night's impressive 3-1 win over Spurs, the champions went three games without scoring in the Premier League - their longest run since 2005.

"It's first touch, and follow the game.

"Transitioning means that with fast players you must give a good pass in the right moment, at a nice speed as well.

"It doesn't mean that you have to do a long ball, no, it means do a sharp pass in the right moment to the right players."

"Against deeper teams if you score the first goal then the game is more open and you have more time to transition.

"If you are 0-0 then we don't have time for that transition because they (opposition) don't come up (the pitch) so we can't make the counter pass and move forward again."

After helping Bayern win a historic treble last season, the former Barcelona man made the move to Anfield for a reported £25 million.

However, a nasty injury and a positive COVID-test meant he hasn't featured as prominently. His run in the side coincided with a series of poor results and he ended up receiving some unwarranted criticism for it.

"The situation with Thiago was not easy. He came to Liverpool late then got ill, then was injured and was then playing immediately in a decisive position.

"So we thought that tonight, it might make sense to play it slightly higher on the pitch."