As we head into another episode, we take a look at what might be the carbon copy of a previous player we spoke a about (with the caveat of him being a better player in my opinion), as we take a look at the epitome of yet another Midfield Maestro, Spanish International and Liverpool player, Thiago Alcantara. Thiago was literally born with football in his veins… He is the son of the former Brazilian international Mazinho who won the World Cup in 1994, so Thiago was always destined to play this sport, and play it at a very high level. He started his career at La Masia and really has never looked back, becoming a key squad rotation player within the first team, then moving to Germany to become one of the star players at Bayern Munich, to now being the cog within Liverpool’s favoritism for a Midfield 3, and although he has been injured recently (as well as being on the verge of 32), he is still a class above many with his ability to compltely control an entire midfield by himself.
PLAYER BIO
Thiago is another example of a midfielder who is dimunituve since he stands at only 5’7″. He is another one of those ballerz that has the entire game at his feet with his ability to abasolutely domiante and control an entire game on his own. Unlike the rest of the players that are of a similar elk, Thiago has that extra special sauce on the ball that allows his movememts to look absolutely flawless. The one issue I have with his bio within SMW is the fact he is not a both footed player since he is quite capable on both feet (although he tends to only use the left when he really needs to, but is is pretty clean whenever he does)
BEST ATTRIBUTES WITHIN SM23
Here are the all too important attributes for Thiago. As you can see, Thiago has a lot of similarities to Marco in that they both have basically the exact same attributes that are around the ’80+’ range. There are some issues with Thiago’s abilities that I am not too pleased with, however. First of all, his ‘Positioning’ should be higher simply because he was a graduate of the La Masia school of Football where positioning was one of the mandatory requirements in order for a youngster to continue on his path to the first team. While his ‘Long passing’ (even though I didn’t make a note of it) should also be higher since he is actually a better overall passer than Marco Verratti. Lastly, his ‘Flair’ is only at ’81’… I mean, this guy is the epitome of elegance, balance, press resistance, and just overall top body usage to get out of any danger. It should most definitely be within the ’90’s’
BEST ROLES
Another player within the ‘one man role’ club, simply put: give Thiago the ball and let him do his thing. If you ever get the chance, I HIGHLY recommend you check out highlights of him either via watching a compilation of him on YouTube, or watching a full length match with him playing and spend 10-15 minutes just following his every move. One last thing to note is that while Verratti is of the same elk as Thiago, Thiago has a better range of passing and also prefers to play within a midfield 3 set up (which will be important as we look at other areas throughout this episode)Even though he prefers a midfield 3, Thiago’s football brain and understanding of where to be throughout the entire match makes him a good decision for your ‘Playmaker’ operating within a double pivotIf you choose to play him in a more conservative formation, then the same rule applies as he must be played as a ‘Playmaker’ ONLY Another similarity that Thiago has with Marco is that they can both operate as your single pivot within a Midfield 3, but doing so will be extremely risky since they cannot really defend and will need to have specific types of players around them to not get found out by the opposition
HOW TO BEST USE HIM
As I mentioned earlier, Thiago’s best usage will be to play him within a midfield 3 which will allow him a bit more freedom to conjure up the magic that he has within his locker. Of course, the role remains the same…
WHO ARE THE BEST TEAMATES?
When playing Thiago within his favorite position, formation and role, it will be of importance that we aim to get the right players around him since, unlike Marco Verratti, Thiago is more expansive on the ball and has more of an ability to find his attacking players which will allow our team to get more chances within the game. Therefore, we will need 2 ‘Wingbacks’ who are comfortable staying high and wide to obtain the ball from Thiago and ping back the opposition’s defence. Both of his midfield partners will need to be specified in order for Thiago to have more freedom, and both players should be a BWM and a B2B. The ‘Ball Wining Midfielder’ protects the backline, covers for the ‘Wingbacks’ and covers for Thiago which gives him that freedom he requires, while the ‘Box to Box Midfielder’ gets up and down the pitch allowing Thiago to not have to do too much running since physically he’s not built to be a player that can get up and down on the pitch (instead, he tends to let the ball do all the running for him). While Marco didn’t necessarily need any specific type of attacker in front of him, this is solely down to the fact that Marco likes to keep the ball flowing through his exceptional short passing game, waiting until he gets into the attacking third to truly play those defence splitting passes, while Thiago (as I’ve been mentioning) is a better passer and is looking to play that decisive pass as early as he possibly can which means that he will benefit from having an Attacker who is ready to make those off the ball runs similar to the type of player Joshua needed to have as an attacking teammateOf course, it is imperative that we always use our playmakers to get them firing on all cylinders…When playing Thiago in a double pivot, it is mandatory that he has a ‘BWM’ next to him in order for him to simply focus on knitting the play together from deep, transitioning into the attacking areas while his ‘BWM’ partner stays back to protect and cover any space. The ‘WB’s will need to be attack minded since they will have to be the provider of width, allowing the players immediately in front of them to tuck in slightly and be closer to goal, while upfront, the Forward that you choose to use must have great movement as we’ve been talking about since Thiago will find him no matter where on the pitch, or how challenging the pass is In the 3-4-1-2 example here, Thiago will require the same set of players next to him which is an added bonus since it allows you more flexibility in terms of playing various different formations throughout the course of a seasonLastly, if you are trying to take a risk (or want to make an offensive type formation 75 minutes into a match without switching your formation), you will have to play 2 energetic midfielders alongside Thiago who will do all of the leg work and defensive covering to allow Thiago to do his thing while in possession, as well as not being isolated whenever he has to defend. In the defence, you will need to have a ‘Stopper’ behind him who only wants to defend, while playing both ‘WB’s’ is always suggested whenever you play with Thiago since he will be playing those diagonal switches on automatic and there is enough cover coming from the ‘B2B’ Midfielders to allow your ‘Wingbacks’ to get on the attack
If it’s one thing I feared writing today’s episode is the fact that Thiago’s rating might go down to 93 by the time this is out since SMW is in the timeframe of rating and positional changes, and Thiago has not played a lot of games this season due to injures. Nevertheless, He is still an amazing Playmaker who will still be changing games regardless of if his rating goes down or not. A key player to have in your squad that will rank up the assists and goals for himself and the rest of your squad.
Coming up next week, we will continue our look at the M(C)’s, heading back to Spain to check out a baller who has won it all within his career and is highly considered the best Central Midfield Maestro rated 94+ within SM. Stick around lads cause we’re just getting started!!! 🔥 🔥 🔥
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