Rio Ferdinand accuses Thiago of 'epitomising' Jurgen Klopp's orders.
The Manchester United legend heaped praise on Liverpool's midfielder following the Reds' crucial 2-1 Champions League home win over Ajax.
Liverpool came back from their toughest Champions League defeat ever with a 2-1 win over Ajax at Anfield.
The win came just six days after Liverpool were harrassed by Serie A giants Napoli, who defeated them 4-1 in what was indisputably one of Jurgen Klopp's worst performance this season. However, like any great team, they responded quickly and recorded a crucial victory over the Dutch champions.
In the immediate wake of the game, Manchester United legend and BT Sport pundit Rio Ferdinand singled out Liverpool midfielder Thiago Alcantara for praise, citing his relentless ability to advance the ball as one of the reasons why his achievement stood out.
"He came on late against Napoli and he was the only one who got any good press," the former Red Devil explained. It is not praise, but encouraging thoughts from the manager, stepping forward, stepping on the opponents, as he did today.
"How Jurgen Klopp's team plays against people, in people's faces, and plays the ball forward, he exemplified that today."
Liverpool were undeniably the more dominant side in a hard-fought battle between two European giants. Within the first 20 minutes, Mohamed Salah put the hosts ahead with his third goal of the season across all competitions.
The game appeared to be heading to a draw until central defender Joel Matip's header was deemed to have crossed the line by goal line technology and the linesman, who immediately flagged to notify the referee of the goal.
Dusan Tadic, a former Southampton player, tried his hardest to clear Matip's header, but replays showed that the ball had already crossed the line by the time the Serbian international could even attempt to clear it.
Klopp was delighted with his team's efforts, as he stated during his post-match press conference. "I think that everyone could see we knew we had to put in a completely different shift in the game," the Reds manager added.
"I played a lot of good stuff against a tough, good opponent, scored the first goal, should've added more goals from set-pieces, I'm not sure how these balls didn't go in."
"I'm not certain if it was the first attack, but Ajax didn't have much." That's how it is in our situation, but Kudus has a great strike."
Liverpool are now second in their Champions League group, level on points with Napoli, who travel to Scottish dragons Rangers on Wednesday evening.
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