All eyes were on Thiago as he joined the Reds squad at Stamford Bridge two days on from his £25 million move from Bayern Munich, with anticipation building over the weekend.
Circumstances made his Premier League bow significantly easier, with Andreas Christensen’s foul on Sadio Mane leaving Chelsea with 10 men at the break.
Henderson made way at half-time with a thigh problem, and Jurgen Klopp made the bold call to replace him with Thiago, clearly convinced that a world-class player would be able to slot in and shine immediately. Thiago an early debut for Liverpool, and he made an instant impact as he broke the record for successful passes in a 45-minute display
The 2-0 win was marked by the brilliance of Mane and the misery of Kepa Arrizabalaga, but Liverpool’s new No. 6 made his mark by, remarkably, setting a new record in terms of passes.
According to Opta, no player has recorded as many successful passes in a performance of 45 minutes or less since records began in the Premier League in 2003, with 75.
No Liverpool midfielder managed more over the course of the entire game, with Naby Keita the closest with 49, while no Chelsea player produced higher than Mateo Kovacic’s 64.
Remarkably, the Spain international has already broken a Premier League record with the quality of his passing.
As shown by Opta in the tweet below, Alcantara completed 75 successful passes against Chelsea more than any player has ever done over 45 minutes in the Premier League since Opta started collecting this data in 2003/04.
See tweet below:
75 – Half-time substitute Thiago completed more passes (75) than any Chelsea player managed in the entire match. Since full passing data is available for the Premier League (2003-04), his 75 successful passes are the most by a player who played a maximum of 45 minutes. Control. pic.twitter.com/UvHfrw1ggN
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 20, 2020
