Liverpool star Thiago sparked excitement on Wednesday.
This is the first time we’ve seen him in action since the Merseyside derby, during which the Spaniard suffered from a bad knee injury.
As soon as Jurgen Klopp named Thiago in the squad, there was a buzz of expectation around Merseyside and Liverpool twitter. It was like an entire fanbase was getting ready for one special moment.
And when the former Barcelona man came on, he didn’t disappoint. There was a clear injection of authority in the midfield, some extra class, and a little zip around the game.
You could make a coherent argument that say that’s exactly what Liverpool have missed during this run of disappointing draws. We don’t know for sure if Thiago would have earned the Reds three points against Fulham, West Brom or Newcastle, but we know he would have added an extra threat.
It may have only been 20 minutes on Wednesday night, but it was an incredibly exciting 20 minutes and a 20 minutes that showed us all what we’ve been missing.
Even Jurgen Klopp was excited about his return, reported the BBC.
"“We could see a lot of moments how good a footballer he is. Now we have to see how he reacts and all that stuff. A really good game but not the result we want.”"
Liverpool will have sterner tests ahead than this Newcastle team, who kept an unexpected clean sheet thanks to a combination of poor finishing, a heroic performance from goalkeeper Karl Darlow and one last-gasp clearance from Ciaran Clarke.
Fitness issues have plagued the Reds this campaign. Nat Phillips was forced to start in defence because Joel Matip was out injured, while Klopp had very little attacking quality on the bench.
The injection of class provided by Thiago has been ridiculous here.
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) December 30, 2020
Xherdan Shaqiri came on with two minutes left in the game but had Diogo Jota been available things would have been different.
While it was exciting to see Thiago in full flow, it was a frustrating night in a number of other ways. Will we ever get to see a full-strength Liverpool this season? I doubt it. But if we can get Thiago back and firing, that’ll matter less than before.