Thiago Has His Injury Problems - But He's Still a World Class Midfielder

If there were any lingering doubts about Bayern Munich's preposterous domestic form and whether it's transferable onto the European stage, they have just been comprehensively launched out the window.

In the wake of their rampant charge to the Champions League semi-finals, Chelsea and Barcelona were smashed to bits. Arturo Vidal felt the Bavarian giants were in for a reality check when they came up against the self-professed 'best team in the world'; Hansi Flick's team responded with a nuclear explosion, rattling in eight goals over the course of 90 minutes.

You'd have to ask Flick himself how he's managed to motivate a team, fresh off 16 straight domestic wins, to kick things up yet another gear. Before their short break they were a force to be reckoned with, but now they're just unstoppable, and it's hard to tie that incremental yet significant jump to a decisive factor.

Having Thiago back from injury, however? No small part of it.

Against Chelsea, he was a long way from his best, yet still seemed so natural in dictating the play. He tentatively eased himself back into the swing of things, but despite Ross Barkley and Mason Mount frequently doubling up to isolate him, he made more passes than any player on the pitch other than the Bayern centre backs - and 90% of them found the mark.

He hadn't started a game since May, and the rust had a temporary bearing on the fluidity of his movement, but 90 minutes was all it took him to get back up to speed. As his former employers Barcelona found out on Friday.

It's easy to look at the eight goals that Bayern scored on the night, and surmise that since Thiago had a hand in none of them, he was not at his creative best. But you would be completely and utterly missing the point.

On a day where there were no shortage of star performers, he shone that little bit brighter than anyone else on the pitch. Even though he's an injury prone 29-year-old who is out of contract in a year's time, it underlined the potential bargain Liverpool are getting at €30m.

This was one of the best midfield performances we've seen in the Champions League.

He made finding space between a tightly packed Barcelona midfield look as if he was spreading butter on toast. He showed for the ball at every turn and with his generational passing range on full display, his team-mates were more than happy to let him have it.

By full-time, at a success rate of 96%, he'd made 74 passes - for context, David Alaba was Bayern's second most prolific passer with 57.

Those numbers go a long way to explaining why he is often typecast as Bayern's graceful metronome, drifting between the lines and spraying passes with pinpoint accuracy, but he's far more than that. He made ten tackles or interceptions over the course of the Chelsea and Barcelona matches, equalled only by Leon Goretzka.

He's an all-action midfielder who does it all - it just so happens that he possesses better vision and execution of pass than almost any other player in the modern game.

You can't hide from the fact that injury has disrupted his ascent to the top of the game, and his unfavourable record is a major part of why Bayern are prepared to sell on the cheap. He's missed 35 matches with injury since the beginning of the 2017/18 season, so as reliable a performer as he is on the pitch, his next club will have to manage his fitness carefully.

Presently, however, he is fighting fit and in unplayable form. Whether or not he'll be sold before he can fight for a third winners' medal of the season remains to be seen, but you get the sense there will be plenty more to follow in Thiago's next chapter.