Thiago Alcantara has been reminiscing about his time at Barcelona and has been asked to name the best player he shared a pitch with during his playing days at Camp Nou.
The former midfielder is now back at Barcelona and is part of Hansi Flick’s coaching staff and admitted it was tough singling out one player after playing alongside some of the greats of the game.
“Barcelona, you could choose from the goalkeeper to the striker,” Thiago said on the Peter Crouch podcast.
“But for sure, the understanding
of the game, this kind of mix between tactical and talent was Andres Iniesta.
“We had Messi, Xavi, Busquets, we had a lot of great players. Iniesta was playing in my position and I mirrored myself into that player.”
Thiago was also asked for top team-mates at Bayern and Liverpool and had some interesting choices.
“At Bayern Munich, we had Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben, but I’m going back to my position,” he explained.
“To see a player like Philipp Lahm… he was very consistent as a full-back. When he played in the middle, I was said: ‘This guy always plays in the middle, he was not a full-back!’. He surprised me a lot.
“[At Liverpool] Bobby Firmino… I was in love with that player. He puts his talent in the service of the team and he was so good on the ball.”
