Thiago Alcantara had a Liverpool debut to remember as he played the entire second half and ran the show against Chelsea.
The Reds ran out 2-0 winners at Stamford Bridge, with Alcantara’s superb passing on show in the Premier League for the first time since his move from Bayern Munich.
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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…
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
In fairness, given the way the game has developed in recent years, it seems pretty unlikely anyone produced something like this before 2003, when there was more direct play and less emphasis on possession, as well as fewer players with the ability to pull this off.
Alcantara truly is a class act and it tells you something about Liverpool’s dominance that the 29-year-old completed more passes than any Chelsea player did in the entire game despite only playing the second half.
What a way for Liverpool’s exciting new signing to introduce himself!