It's safe to say that Liverpool have had a fairly successful week after obliterating their bitter rivals Manchester United by an eye-opening scoreline of 5-0 at Old Trafford, followed by beating Preston North End in the Carabao Cup to cruise through to the quarter-finals of the competition.

Looking ahead to the weekend, Jurgen Klopp's side are set to take on Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League at Anfield, with one player potentially making his return to the side.

What's the news?

With this match against Graham Potter's side in mind, it seems as though the good mood around the club is set for another boost, with midfielder Thiago Alcantara returning to first team training on Thursday after being out for the previous few weeks with a calf injury.

Liverpool signed Thiago in September 2020 from German side Bayern Munich on a four-year deal for a reported fee of £20m. Since then, the 30-year-old, who is currently valued at £22.5m by Transfermarkt, has made 35 appearances for the Merseyside club across all competitions, scoring one goal and providing one assist.

Despite having a slow start to his time with the Reds in terms of goals and assists, the Spaniard ended his first season at the club as their third-highest rated player in the Premier League with an overall performance rating of 7.12/10 according to WhoScored, proving why Klopp will be thrilled to have the midfielder back in training and potentially available for selection for the Brighton match.

Furthermore, with Thiago racking up an average of 1.3 key passes per game as well as an average accuracy passing percentage of 90%, along with 2.5 tackles per game in his Premier League appearances last season, this shows how well-rounded a midfield option he is for the Reds and hints at how massive a boost it could be to have him available for selection once more.

Looking ahead to the Brighton game, if he is deemed fit enough to start, he should definitely be in Klopp's thinking when he's putting his starting XI together to try and secure a win against the Seagulls, who are currently fifth in the table with 15 points on the board after nine games played.

In other news: Possession lost 21x: “Dangerous” Liverpool lightweight badly let Klopp down against Preston