Thiago Alcantara

behindbrowneyes said:

Coutinho's dribbling is better and his playmaking skills are not worse than Thiago's.

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You could also twist this and say "Thiago's playmaking is better and his dribbling skills are not worse than Coutinho's".
But what you gotta remember is that Thiago competes with Coutinho here all while putting on an actual defensive shift that consists of a lot more than just the normally expected "attacker tracks back" stuff.

This is all based on the most unreliable journalist in MDs rather convenient report

Yannik said:

You could also twist this and say "Thiago's playmaking is better and his dribbling skills are not worse than Coutinho's".
But what you gotta remember is that Thiago competes with Coutinho here all while putting on an actual defensive shift.

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Coutinho works hard defensively and in a different league to Thiago going forward.

Both good in different ways but for me Coutinho has been better and fairly easily better player in past few years.

No ty.
Already tried him once, didnt work then, wont work now.
Not much better than Rafinha.

SeloBarca said:

No ty.
Already tried him once, didnt work then, wont work now.
Not much better than Rafinha.

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He is far superior to Rafinha and would clearly improve the team if fit.

Rafinha even at his very best is nothing but a squad player and particularly great one.

Wont be back though and he left rather than fight for spot and wanted promises his performances didnt warrant at the time.

Thiago and Coutinho are different players. Coutinho is an attacking mid so of course he offers more goal threat. Creativity wise however it's pretty even. And of course Thiago offers the control and defensive abilities that Coutinho simply doesn't offer. Coutinho is not a natural CM, it's as simple as that. He'd be good on the left if we persist with 442, and could do a good job no doubt in a mid 3 as Iniesta replacement. But has anyone watched Liverpool when he plays CM? They're ridiculously open. Of course here he will have better players around which will help, but Coutinho as CM won't give us the control in big games whereas Thiago would. Based on that alone I'd rather have Thiago. I do very much like Coutinho as a player though, just to clarify.

ASordidGod said:

Thiago and Coutinho are different players. Coutinho is an attacking mid so of course he offers more goal threat. Creativity wise however it's pretty even. And of course Thiago offers the control and defensive abilities that Coutinho simply doesn't offer. Coutinho is not a natural CM, it's as simple as that. He'd be good on the left if we persist with 442, and could do a good job no doubt in a mid 3 as Iniesta replacement. But has anyone watched Liverpool when he plays CM? They're ridiculously open. Of course here he will have better players around which will help, but Coutinho as CM won't give us the control in big games whereas Thiago would. Based on that alone I'd rather have Thiago. I do very much like Coutinho as a player though, just to clarify.

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It is nowhere close in terms of creativity and Coutinho is much better in final third and has played deeper at Liverpool and excelled.#

Thiago is better CM, Coutinho is still a very good CM and can play WC at AM or wider.

Liverpool are always open.

ASordidGod said:

Thiago and Coutinho are different players. Coutinho is an attacking mid so of course he offers more goal threat. Creativity wise however it's pretty even. And of course Thiago offers the control and defensive abilities that Coutinho simply doesn't offer. Coutinho is not a natural CM, it's as simple as that. He'd be good on the left if we persist with 442, and could do a good job no doubt in a mid 3 as Iniesta replacement. But has anyone watched Liverpool when he plays CM? They're ridiculously open. Of course here he will have better players around which will help, but Coutinho as CM won't give us the control in big games whereas Thiago would. Based on that alone I'd rather have Thiago. I do very much like Coutinho as a player though, just to clarify.

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This control in big games about which you talk.
We are currently winning against all big opponents with Paulinho and Rakitic as starters.

After reading some posts, it sounds as if we will die if we don't buy this traitor back.
I mean, Real and Juventus couldn't do anything against Rakitic and Paulinho.
And reading between the lines of your post, a midfield with Coutinho will suddenly leave big gaps against big teams.

JamDav1982 said:

Coutinho works hard defensively

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Coutinho is forward that is asked to track back. That is nothing special in a top 5 league, only Messi and Ronaldo are allowed to dismiss those duties. Thiago is actually usable as a defensive mid. Two complete different things.

Yannik said:

Coutinho is forward that is asked to track back. That is nothing special in a top 5 league. Thiago is actually usable as a defensive mid. Two complete different things.

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He works hard defensively.

Thiago is not a great DM at all and will always need a more defensive player beside him. Better DM than Coutinho which is irrelevant anyway really.

Coutinho is better going forward and can play multiple positions. Just the better player and what Barca need.

Yannik said:

Coutinho is forward that is asked to track back. That is nothing special in a top 5 league. Thiago is actually usable as a defensive mid. Two complete different things.

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Our team is already quite solid in defense.
So, Thiago's defensive contribution is NOT what we need the most in this moment.

On the other hand, Coutinho's magical skills in the final third...

JamDav1982 said:

He works hard defensively.

Thiago is not a great DM at all and will always need a more defensive player beside him. Better DM than Coutinho which is irrelevant anyway really.

Coutinho is better going forward and can play multiple positions. Just the better player and what Barca need.

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Exactly.

Coutinho is a better player.
Has a higher desire to play for us.
And is not injury prone.

Cou vs Thiago.
A no brainer decision.

BBZ8800 said:

This control in big games about which you talk.
We are currently winning against all big opponents with Paulinho and Rakitic as starters.

After reading some posts, it sounds as if we will die if we don't buy this traitor back.
I mean, Real and Juventus couldn't do anything against Rakitic and Paulinho.
And reading between the lines of your post, a midfield with Coutinho will suddenly leave big gaps against big teams.

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Well, yes. That is indeed what I'm saying. Coutinho's a quality player, I'm not debating that, but I wouldn't trust him in CM in the big games. Hell, I hope I'm wrong, but that's just how I feel. I'm English and watch him a lot, and yes he does amazing things, but if we play him LW where does Dembele fit, and if you think as a CM he can be anywhere NEAR comparable to Iniesta you're dreaming. The thing with Thiago though he offers control, creativity (more assists than Coutinho last season according to a quick glance at whoscored), and vastly under rated defensive capabilities (again, check the stats if you don't believe me). But for me the great beauty of Thiago is that he wouldn't be an Iniesta replacement but rather a Rakitic replacement. For a Busquets, Iniesta Thiago would work in a way a Busquets Iniesta Coutinho wouldn't.

What is this rubbish about Thiago not being world class? He's almost undisputably a top 5 mid in the world on form and I can only implore you to watch the games if you disagree. I've followed Koke since he first broke out at Atleti and he hasn't been on the same level for years, and Thiago is better than Iniesta and probably Silva too. The main reason he lacks the caps that Koke has for Spain is because of injury.

The recency bias is absurd due to his injury and not having really played this season. He was integrating into Heynckes' system quite nicely and has been arguably Bayern's best player in up to 2 of the last 3 seasons which MANY Bayern fans would agree. He was pretty much Ancelotti's most important player in what is/was an aging squad. Coutinho is obviously having the better season but you could say he's been doing better than the likes of Kroos, Isco, and even Modric right now too. Doesn't reduce the class of those 3 at all because we all know what they can do on their best game.

Thiago is world class and has been for some seasons now. If you're holding CL success against him then I guess a lot of the Bayern players haven't been world class since 2014, Verratti isn't world class, hell Coutinho too hasn't 'proven' to be world class yet either. Thiago's done fine and produced big games vs the likes of Arsenal and Juventus, regularly wrecks Dortmund too domestically even when they were a stronger team. He did pretty well against us in the return game in 2015 too.

Good point about Verratti.

Many here almost wanked themselves to death over the thought of potentially landing Verratti, a player who just like the rest of the PSG team has shown himself to be prone to brain farts when it really mattered in the CL.