Liverpool remains in the hunt for a historic quadruple after the Reds calmly dispatched Villarreal last night in a commanding 2-0 performance at Anfield that showed the massive gap in quality that exists between Jürgen Klopp’s Anfield outfit and almost every other club in Europe at the moment.

While star forward Sadio Mané drew many of the plaudits last night in a record-tying goalscoring performance in front of the home support, midfielder Thiago put in another expert display in the center of the park that had quite a few suggest that the Spanish international was the club’s top performer on the night.

But that notion can be extended to a longer period than just last night as it has come to light just how ruthlessly efficient Thiago has been for Liverpool in recent weeks when it comes to his ability to be the true command and control center for the Reds preferred way of playing.

In matches against Man Utd, Everton and Villarreal, Thiago has completed 326 of his 337 attempted passes. Just 11 misplaced in 260 minutes on the pitch #UCL pic.twitter.com/zF0mZf7zpC

— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) April 27, 2022

Across his last three appearances for Liverpool – against rival duo Manchester United and Everton, as well as Villarreal – the former Bayern Munich and Barcelona stalwart completed a staggering 326 passes from 337 attempts; good enough for a 96.7% completed passing rate.

Most impressively, the Liverpool man completed 98% of his passes against Everton when the Reds dispatched their bitter city rivals 2-0 last weekend. Such numbers pay homage to how quietly brilliant he has been when fully fit for Liverpool, and speaks to the reason why the club made a move for the mercurial midfielder after he shone in both Bavaria and Catalunya across his stellar career to date.

With distribution efficiency at the forefront of his game, as well as confident ball security and creativity that comes with it hand-in-hand, Thiago has emerged as arguably one of the key pieces in the run to four major honors this season at Liverpool and not a moment too soon.

Despite missing 12-matches in the Premier League this season, half the Champions League group stage, and the entirety of the Carabao Cup campaign, recent performances from the Italian-born Spanish international have been a timely reminder that the goalscoring exploits of Mohammed Salah, Sadio Mané, and Diogo Jota would likely not be possible without Thiago in command behind them.