Adrian has hailed the arrival of national compatriot Thiago, with the midfielder’s out of this world “ambition” and dedication already making him stand up and take notice.
After months of countless reports linking the Reds with Thiago, the 29-year-old finally landed at Anfield and was met by great fanfare as a serial winner and world-class operator was added to the squad of the Premier League champions.
But Liverpool supporters were not the only ones excited at the prospect, with the players themselves bubbling with anticipation over linking up with a proven winner.
After making an impression in his 45 minutes of action at Chelsea, Sadio Mane considered Liverpool “lucky” to have “one of the best players in the world” on their team – and Adrian, who had seen Thiago up close on international duty with Spain in 2016, was of a similar mind.
“Thiago is a world-class player. I knew him before when we went to the national team and because we have a few friends between us,” Adrian told the club’s official website.
“He’s a top player, he has quality, he has [a] great pass, great shot, vision of the game – a different one. So he gives us a lot of help. This season is going to be tough and he gives us that quality that he has.
“Obviously part of this is a great player, fits really well into the dressing room, speaks very good English, so no problem at all. I think he’s going to enjoy this season, the first season with us.
“He’s a winner…He likes to win, he came here to win, to try to win all the titles we are facing this season.
“It’s going to be intense, it’s going to be a period with many games. It’s a great signing for us and I think he’s going to help us a lot.”
Thiago‘s arrival provides Jurgen Klopp with greater tactical versatility, but his character and winning mentality is one of his greatest assets, as he proved when revealing he would not touch the This Is Anfield sign until he wins something with Liverpool.
It’s the small things that add up to separate a great player from a world-class one, and Adrian has already noticed that his ambition is “from another planet” and that he is one of the first to arrive and the last to leave training.
“He was like how I was expecting but the other players, maybe they played against him when he was at Bayern or Barcelona and they could have suffered his quality and all the stuff that Thiago is doing on the pitch,” Adrian continued.
“You can see that he’s a different player. He uses right and left like the same leg, he has ambition like totally another person from another planet.
“You can see him doing passes that nobody sees and shooting with that quality, with that spin he has in both legs. Also, he’s a hard worker – playing in midfield for us is going to help him.
“For sure, everyone is trying to help him to adapt as quick as possible to our system, to the movement of the players on the pitch but he’s clever enough to adapt to play quick. You can see him now around Melwood like this is the new home of him – the first one coming in, leaving as the last one.”
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