Thiago is a world class no. 8 - and he is world class in this position. But he is not a world class no. 10 in our system as we just do not have enough movement upfront in a 4-3-3 or call it 4-2-3-1 with 3 midfielders. The emphasis on ball possession just causes that the opponent usually is sitting back, does not leave much space and the wingers and striker are totally guarded. Bayern has an offense that just does not work great then whereas 3 of our players (Robben, Lewy and Müller) are in the historical top 8 of the CL final rounds but have achieved that mainly with 4 offensives. The offensives are nearly toothless without and really have problems.
Lewy might have had 8 goals in the CL this season - but 4 were penalties, 1 a freekick, 2 came with Müller playing left on paper but as Alaba was very offensive he played more like a hanging striker and one came against an Arsenal after they lost Koscielny. That says about all. Lewy's output looks nearly the same in other matches, too - with 3 midfielders he nearly never functioned from open play and depended mainly on setpiece situations to get goals.
Thiago is a world class no. 8 - but in the bigger matches he was played as no. 10 - and his abilities are just not that what we would really need there - whereas his abilities were really missed in many matches in the deeper position. He is really great as ball winner, is a very good passer and has the absolute eye for movement upfront where he is really able to play this timed and accurate passes that are needed. He is not the one that provides that movement - but one that can react on it.
Vidal was not Bayern's best midfielder this season either.
For me there're better no. 8 out there than Thiago. The latter comes across as quite naive/arrogant in how he's strolling over the field, giving possession carelessly away by misplacing passes, not in the slightest dangerous enough in front of goal (no.10), not combative enough in consistently trying to get the ball back, IMO. Media protrayed it recently as if Bayern were all over Verratti, who's clearly on a different level, which says it all to me.
You see it differently and that's okay, but despite Thiago being able to be a great passer of the ball sometimes, he makes mistakes, maybe because he's overthinking the situation, you can't have that in the way it happens, someone like Kroos is much better in playing it safe, you need reliability for most of the time. That's not one of Thiago's strengths in which he specialises in, IMO.
Personally i'm of the opinion that -at least for my taste, you overstate the importance of his exact position. Maybe i'm in the wrong here, but i've seen Thiago lose out on the ball all over the pitch. The special factor is that when the place gets more crowded and less space is available, he tries to pull off one of his 'stupid' tricks and there's a good chance that he's about to get dispossessed. I'm talking about better teams here, against most teams in the Bundesliga he's able to get away with it, no disrespect meant. Of course if he has babysitters all around him, he can play one of his famous long passes, but for me that's not good enough. Chelsea had similar problems with Fabregas, but Fabregas isn't as much showboating than Thiago, IMO. For me, Thiago in this side is a big weakness. A friend, who's a big fan of Bayern Munich, really hates him, he can't understand why he's some sort of a god for the press and i find myself agreeing with him in some of his criticism.
Lewandowski gives your team a focal point. He can handle himself against anyone and he's realiable. There's night and day between Bayern with or without Lewandowski, recently seen against Real Madrid.
Vidal is a fighter, there's not a chance that he's ever giving in. I've seen great matches in big games from him. As a team you can always completely rely on him. Missing a pen can happen...i would always take someone like him over a freespirit such as Thiago who reminds me more of Gotze than a consistently world class player.
Agree to disagree!
