After storming to the league last year, things have not been anywhere near as smooth for Liverpool this season.
While they are very much still in the title race and very much still an excellent team on their day, those days have been hard to come by of late for Jürgen Klopp and his team.
Injuries have undoubtedly played their part, with the loss of Virgil van Dijk a particular hammer blow that the Premier League champions simply didn’t adapt to.
The defence has not been their only issue, though, with their previously infallible front three suddenly firing blanks and receiving all sorts of criticism as a result.
Much of this criticism has been blamed on those behind them, with it believed that Liverpool’s midfield and full-backs simply aren’t providing the chances like they used to.
In some corners, this has been attributed to a change in style thanks to the summer arrival of Thiago from Bayern Munich, with it believed his more calm, considered approach to the game has somewhat held back Liverpool’s previous in your face, full-throttle football.
Mundo Deportivo have a look at the situation today and plant their flag firmly in the camp of those who say Thiago simply doesn’t fit.
They say that Liverpool ‘live in a permanent contradiction’ and have not got used to the change in style since Thiago’s arrival, labelling the Spaniard’s approach more ‘leisurely’.
That is something opponents have picked up on, giving the Reds the ball and leaving it ‘stranded’ with their star midfielder.
MD say this has led Liverpool to lose their ‘enthusiasm’ and it’s as if they have been ‘confronted’ by their own DNA.
It’s left them at a crossroads because, while they are programmed to ‘gallop forward’ they now can’t and ‘struggle to be decisive’ when in attack.
Thiago is also slightly to blame, with his lack of consistency and ‘different understanding of the game’ meaning the team has been ‘conditioned by the patchwork’ he has put in week after week.
Essentially, the point is that Thiago simply doesn’t fit in with Liverpool’s DNA and his more considered, careful approach stands in the face of the heavy metal football that Klopp has established at Anfield since his arrival.
Whether he can turn that around remains to be seen, but Mundo’s stance seems to be that he can’t, with him and Liverpool at very different ends of the football spectrum.
