Liverpool may have their own Xavi who can help fix Thiago problem

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Liverpool may just have their own Xavi if Lionel Messi’s comments from 2018 are anything to go by on new signing Arthur Melo. The Reds completed a deadline day loan deal on Thursday night to welcome the Brazilian to Anfield from Juventus for the rest of the season.

Arthur joined Barcelona from Gremio to great hype four years ago but his time in Europe has not been as successful as expected for a multitude of reasons. The 26-year-old finds himself out of favour at Juve under Massimiliano Allegri.

As such he has joined Liverpool, who are in need of new midfielders due to injuries. Jordan Henderson joined Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Thiago Alcantara on the sidelines after the captain pulled his hamstring on Wednesday night.

And Arthur is the kind of deep-lying playmaker who can help Jurgen Klopp address the fact that Thiago appears so irreplaceable for the Reds. They have no other players as technically proficient as the Spaniard and as adept at controlling the tempo of a match in the middle of the park.

But their new Brazilian – who becomes the fourth first-team Brazil international at Anfield after Alisson, Fabinho and Roberto Firmino – can help address that problem. A superb progressive passer, the agile Arthur will be able to rotate with Thiago when he is fit and still offer the much-missed line-breaking passes.

And he is a player who “surprised” Messi back in 2018. The iconic Argentine said when he was still a Barcelona player and Arthur was his team-mate: “It surprised me. The truth is that I did not know him a lot.

“The truth is that he seems [similar] to the style of Xavi. He has the La Maria style: the one to want to always the ball, to play short passes, and not to lose the ball.”

Andrea Pirlo, Arthur’s former Juve manager and once a great midfield metronome himself, similarly said of his abilities in possession: “We talk and he prefers to play in a more advanced position, leaving more defensive tasks to another midfielder.

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“He does it very well, every time we start to build play, he is ready, in the right place. He has vision, manages the ball very well and picks the right time to get out of the opposition’s press.”

Every indication is that Arthur will play as one of the No 8s in front of Fabinho in the Liverpool midfield, most likely on the left-hand side where Thiago is often deployed. And he will be asked to perform a similar role to the Spain international under Klopp.

Thiago took time to fully adjust to the pace and rigours of the Premier League, particularly defensively, but is now one of Liverpool’s most pivotal players. Given he’s only on a season-long loan, Arthur doesn’t have quite as much time.

But if he can live up to the billing provided by the likes of Messi and Pirlo, Arthur can be a very useful asset to Liverpool in a hectic season. They just desperately need to hope he does not suffer as many niggles and knocks as he has at Barca and Juve.

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