Thiago Alcantara has played his way into Liverpool colours

Thiago has played his way into the Liverpool side.

The initial transfer rumour broke following the conclusion of Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga campaign and we didn’t really have  point of reference for Thiago.

But then the Champions League season restarted and now we can fully realise what all the hype is about. Bayern smashed Chelsea to pick up some real momentum moving into the final stages of the European competition.

And Thiago was in the engine room of a fantastic Munich performance as they smashed Barcelona 8-2. It’s an eye-catching result and it was an excellent performance from the Spaniard.

It puts his asking price into context. That £27 million fee looks like it’ll be a steal, especially if Liverpool can bring in some new blood and swap the wages of Gini Wijnaldum for the wages of Thiago.

If sporting director Michael Edwards and manager Jurgen Klopp weren’t seriously considering a move for the Munich star, they should be now. In just two games, the midfielder has put himself in the shop window and elite teams around Europe will have sat up and taken notice.

There will need to be a little bit of a reshuffle first, though. With Fabinho, Marko Grujic, Jordan Henderson, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Wijnaldum still in the first team squad, Klopp will need to have a think about what happens next.

We’ve seen Fabinho and Grujic mooted as possible auxiliary central defenders. With Dejan Lovren no longer in the squad, Liverpool are left with three centre-backs in Joe Gomez, Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip.

The injury prone nature of Matip and Gomez will give Klopp some cause for concern, however, and you don’t want to have to rely on two defensive midfielders in the Fernandinho role.

But one thing is for sure, Thiago could have very easily played his way into the Liverpool side next season.