we did not play long balls or direct through balls to him as much as you think. even when he was on the field, which was really limited to 20 mins at a time, those long balls were few and far between. how many times do we watch the game and comment in the chat that we aren't playing more direct? we just don't. it's not our style and that's that.
could thiago had been better? of course. but let's not lie to ourselves and think we tried to play him through balls all the time and he just never did anything with it.
i'm not mad he got loaned out or anything. it's not our style to play that ball. i'm ok with that. but i think he added a dimension that we should have taken advantage of even if he wasn't finishing every chance. as Sabo said, that threat in behind creates space for everyone else. We just failed to play that ball to make it an actual threat.