I found an article written by Miguel Rico (ex-Sport, now in EMD) that reflects my opinion with perfection:
Thiago Alcántara, 20 years old, keeps enough talent to play for lots of seasons in Barça, but at the same time (things of the age) he still lacks aspects that make his definitive step into the first team difficult. The essential aspect, to decide in an immediate manner if he wants to be a football player, in big letters, or he considers that it's enough to the artist he already is, which would be enough to play in any other Primera División team.
And the thing is that Thiago, as it was Iván De la Peña in his time, the personified quality. A midfielder born for Barça. The prototipe of its unique style. Exceptional class, panoramic vision, thrilling dribbligs, deadly last pass, insulting youth... but (yet) not too much head to consider the consequences of his spectacular, but not always necessary, individual actions.
That is the essential problem Thiago must solve and the one that, to satisfy we his club of fans, will finish solving, especially considering previous experiences of similar talent that ended up far from the potential they had in Barça.
The question is that Thaigo plays in maximum risk zone and any lost ball can be deadly for Barça. In that zone, you can not think in individual, but in colective. And the obligation is not nice play, but easy play, a thing that Thiago tends to forget opting for the difficult play... for the forbidden... like the horizontal pass that provoked a foul of Keita and the goal of Levante.
An error of an artist that wouldn't have committed the football player that Thiago will end up being.
------
I think this is a must read to see Thiago's football. I was surprised by the prasing he got, since I still have doubts. I think Guardiola must have very serious conversations with him... for his good!
Thiago Alcántara, 20 years old, keeps enough talent to play for lots of seasons in Barça, but at the same time (things of the age) he still lacks aspects that make his definitive step into the first team difficult. The essential aspect, to decide in an immediate manner if he wants to be a football player, in big letters, or he considers that it's enough to the artist he already is, which would be enough to play in any other Primera División team.
And the thing is that Thiago, as it was Iván De la Peña in his time, the personified quality. A midfielder born for Barça. The prototipe of its unique style. Exceptional class, panoramic vision, thrilling dribbligs, deadly last pass, insulting youth... but (yet) not too much head to consider the consequences of his spectacular, but not always necessary, individual actions.
That is the essential problem Thiago must solve and the one that, to satisfy we his club of fans, will finish solving, especially considering previous experiences of similar talent that ended up far from the potential they had in Barça.
The question is that Thaigo plays in maximum risk zone and any lost ball can be deadly for Barça. In that zone, you can not think in individual, but in colective. And the obligation is not nice play, but easy play, a thing that Thiago tends to forget opting for the difficult play... for the forbidden... like the horizontal pass that provoked a foul of Keita and the goal of Levante.
An error of an artist that wouldn't have committed the football player that Thiago will end up being.
------
I think this is a must read to see Thiago's football. I was surprised by the prasing he got, since I still have doubts. I think Guardiola must have very serious conversations with him... for his good!
