2019–20 UEFA Champions League Best XI
6. Thiago - Bayern Munich
When Pep Guardiola was first approached to manage Bayern Munich, he told the club's hierarchy that the signing of Thiago Alcantara from his former club was the one condition. 'It'll be him, or no one' is how the conversation allegedly went down.
Receiving praise like that from arguably the greatest manager in the modern era should go a long way in telling someone the quality on offer when it comes to Thiago. Whilst he's always been regarded as an accomplished, classy operator in the midfield, the 2019-20 Champions League campaign was a real highlight of the Spaniard's skill.
Playing ten times across the competition and picking up two man of the match awards in that time, Thiago was employed mainly as a deep lying playmaker in Hansi Flick's three-man midfield. Averaging a pass success rate of 91% from his games in Europe and 1.5 key passes every ninety minutes, the Spaniard always looks the coolest individual on the pitch and has proven himself to be the perfect machine to have spraying his trademark diagonal crossfield passes to Bayern's plethora of pacy wingers and wing backs.
Averaging 6.2 long passes per game in the 2019-20 Bundesliga campaign, that number rose all the way up to 8.5 on average during Thiago's European run. Switching the play, dictating the tempo and opening up a variety of passing avenues are traits vital to establishing a long run in the Champions League, and there are few individuals playing right now better at all of these than Thiago.