12 April 24, 2022The Sunday Times
Football Premier League
His ability to play
under pressure has
embarrassed those
who said he was too
delicate for England88.5 Passing success (%) 94.881.6 Passing into final third (%) 91.55.29 Completed longballs 9.121.26 Chances created 1.920.09 Expected assists 0.140.64 xG build up 0.7223.6 Ball progression 26.41.26 Successful dribbles 0.410.73 Dispossessed 0.4168.8 Aerial duel success (%) 47.13.66 Tack le s* 1.5261.4 Tackles/was dribbled 59.12.37 Interceptions* 0.7Thiago Alcântara Toni K ro o sData from Premier League/La Liga and Champions League 2021-22,
per 90 minutes. *Adjusted to possession. Source: DriblabHOW EUROPE’S LEADING
MIDFIELD PIVOTS COMPAREleading a United counterattack,
steaming through the centre circle
with the ball. Thiago was Liverpool’s
last man and he ignored the threat of
Rashford to slide in and dispossess
Lingard. A brilliant gamble, which
showed the overlooked defensive
prowess in his game. When you put
Thiago beside other creative mae-
stros, he wins on all-round contribu-
tion. The Driblab Radar (see graphic)
comparing Thiago and Kroos shows
the difference — in Thiago’s favour —
when it comes to defensive contribu-
tion.60:40 THIAGO TO DÍAZ
Thiago drives towards United’s area
and when Victor Lindelof blocks his
first pass, he flings himself and gets
the ball to Díaz anyway with a diving
header — risking a boot in the face.
This piece of improvisation shows the
intelligence of a player who speaks
five languages (Spanish, Portuguese,
English, German and Italian). And the
bravery proves his will to prevail.
When a coach at the Barcelona
academy told Thiago’s youth team
that “the most important thing is to
participate”, he was quietly setstraight by Mazinho, who repeated
what he told his sons (Thiago’s
brother is Real Sociedad’s Rafinha:
“You are mistaken. The most impor-
tant thing is to compete.”71:05 THIAGO TO VAN DIJK
The full sequence was actually: Mané
to Thiago, Thiago to Mané, Mané back
to Thiago, Thiago to Henderson, Hen-
derson back to Thiago, Thiago to Fab-
inho, Fabinho back to Thiago, Thiago
to Van Dijk. He is a player who gets in
the middle of everyone and connects
— and is said to be the same socially.
Adrian and Kostas Tsimikas are proba-
bly his best friends in the dressing
room, but Thiago is popular with all.78:35 THIAGO TO ROBERTSON
Thiago’s 105th and final successful
pass against United was one last, gor-
geous switch of play that took three
players out of the game and prompted
Robertson to create a chance for
Mané. Bayern let Thiago go for only
£25 million but have regretted it — in
their shock Champions League exit at
the hands of Villarreal, they clearly
lacked that special creative passer
who can break organised opposition.shrugs off a second challenge from
Fernandes and finds Díaz. Moments
later, when the ball comes back to him
via Robertson, Thiago improvises a
lovely pass to Díaz with Phil Jones
breathing down his neck. Robertson
puts his hands together and applauds.
At Bayern, Thiago’s body strength
and hunger for conditioning work sur-
prised people. “I came to Germany to
toughen up,” he said. He has an ability
to play his passes under physical pres-
sure that has rather embarrassed the
lobby who believed him to be too deli-
cate and “too tiki-taka” for the Pre-
mier League, epitomised by Steve
Nicol. When Thiago signed, Nicol said
dismissively: “He can play in the FA
Cup, the League Cup; you can bring
him on and give him half an hour to
→Continued from page 11
pass the ball around if that’s what you
need.”29:43 THIAGO TO SALAH
Klopp has made a significant tweak to
Thiago’s positioning, switching him
from right-sided to left-sided No 8. In
the left channel, without having to
cover for the free-roaming Trent Alex-
ander-Arnold outside him, Thiago can
roam more himself. And he can play
long passes to switch play — one of his
best skills — to Alexander-Arnold and
Salah, perhaps Liverpool’s two most
productive weapons.
In this instance, Thiago received
possession near the left touchline and
faced up Fernandes, confusing him
with stepovers, before cutting inside
and lobbing a gorgeous cross-field
pass to Salah, who ended up shooting.
“That pass,” an increasingly
anguished Neville yelped.42:21 THIAGO TO
ALEXANDER-ARNOLD
A simple offload to Alexander-Arnold
on the edge of the United penalty area
— not simple is what happened ten
seconds before. Jesse Lingard wasA mate who is a West Bromwich
Albion fan messaged me this week
after he’d been to the City Ground
in Nottingham. “I know I’m getting
old, Jonny, because I complained to
my daughter that the music is too
loud but even I could see the place
was jumping.”
He was referring to the fact that
when Forest win they play the
Depeche Mode classic, Just Can’t
Get Enough. Like most songs or
chants, it was first adopted by Celtic
a decade or so back but has now
taken off at Nottingham Forest as
well. It started after the FA Cup win
against Arsenal and was initially
suggested by a young lad called Ed
Henderson, who works at the club,
as a way to connect fans with a
winning moment — and it worked
as it kept the crowd in the ground
for a good ten minutes after the
match.
It has changed the dynamic of
what happens when the team win.
Before, the stadium would
sometimes be a third empty as
people raced away to beat the rush.
Now? They stay dancing in their
seats.
It’s fascinating how this can
develop as part of a match-day
routine. The most famous example
is the playing of You’ll Never WalkStadium MCs are
probably now more
important than everAlone at Anfield. It began in the
early 1960s after local band Gerry
and the Pacemakers had a No 1 hit
with it and Merseybeat echoed out
across the planet. Today it’s all
looked after by George Sephton,
who has been the match-day
announcer for more than 50 years
at Liverpool. He is hugely popular
and his half-time music choices are
widely discussed by fans and often
become terrace chants for players (I
say terraces but you know what I
mean). Interestingly George isn’t
the longest-serving stadium
announcer. Peter Gilham has been
at Brentford even longer.
It’s amazing how affectionate
people become towards them.
Glaswegians tell me about one
called Tiger Tim at Parkhead who
became as well known and popular
as the players. At Forest, the
brilliant Mark Dennison ( like many
a local DJ) made the crowd howl
with laughter recently, announcing
in a puzzled voice that the referee
had awarded nine minutes of
stoppage time.
My favourite was Ali Yassine who
was the Cardiff City and Wales
match-day announcer. If ever I win
the Euromillions and buy Merthyr
Town the first thing I would do is
bring Ali back. He used to getEXTRA TIME
with
Jonny
Owen
everyone fired up by playing
cheeky songs that were aimed at
the opposition. As often seems the
case these days, some got offended
and complained but the majority
used to love it when he’d announce
the names of today’s visitors’ and
play the Muppets theme tune.
I have written here that Ali
playing Three Little Birds by Bob
Marley when Cardiff played Ajax
had such an effect on the away fans
that they continued to sing the
song. Today the Dutch club’s third
kit celebrates that fact and their
emotional link to the king of reggae.
In the modern world of pre-
match entertainment the stadium
MC is probably more important
than ever. Music, a light show and
fireworks are commonplace and
you’ve only got to go to a Wales
fixture to see that it’s enhanced the
whole experience hugely.
Under the stands, DJs, like my
own daughter Katie Owen, play to
thousands of dancing fans in bucket
hats and the announcer there now,
Rhydian Bowen Phillips, does a
wonderful job bilingually of
building the atmosphere to fever
pitch by the time the teams come
out.
I’m glad this role has become
even more important as the game
has developed. It’s a long way from
the great Bill Shankly announcing
the team line-up at Carlisle live over
the newly installed PA to get the
fans in early. He could see how
integral that was going to become.
He was right too (he pretty much
always was when it came to
football) and it’s nice that the club
he became so synonymous with
have one who is among the most
famous of them all.
Jonny Owen & Friends is on
talkSPORT from 9am on SundaysShankly saw how
integral a match-
day announcer
would be – and
he was rightPeter Gilham’s
voice has been
familiar to
Brentford fans for
more than 50 years