7 - Philippe Coutinho - V1

El Gato

Villarato!
That's where he played today??

He's wasted that deep. He wasn't even great until Firmino came on and moved them onto 4-2-4. Absolute waste of talent and it'd be supremely misguided to force him in there.

He's one of the best wingers/LAMs in the world. Best utilised as a winger making the final pass or taking it himself.
 

behindbrowneyes

Well-known member
He's wasted that deep. He wasn't even great until Firmino came on and moved them onto 4-2-4. Absolute waste of talent and it'd be supremely misguided to force him in there.

He's one of the best wingers/LAMs in the world. Best utilised as a winger making the final pass or taking it himself.

Apparently Barça want to sign two central midfielders so Valverde seems to plan with him as LA/M anyway.
 

Neeraj

Senior Member
LW is where we should play him at Barca.

Dembele-Messi-Coutinho

The only problem with playing him LW is that he doesn't really have pace. A winger needs pace on counters/reach long balls played down the flanks. He's extremely good on that LAM position, but I don't know if LW is his best position.

With Messi sort of playing wherever he feels like, we need to figure out a way to play the big CL games. I don't think the average league game is an issue because Alba is more or less a LWB in those games anyway. Against the bigger teams, when Alba is pinned back, who will provide width by hugging the left wing? I don't fancy Coutinho there. It would be a waste of his talent, and his lack of outright pace would not help.
 

El Gato

Villarato!
The only problem with playing him LW is that he doesn't really have pace. A winger needs pace on counters/reach long balls played down the flanks. He's extremely good on that LAM position, but I don't know if LW is his best position.

He's absolutely got enough pace to gain a few yards on his defender and send the ball to Dembele on the opposite side. It's how he'd be utilised best. He doesn't need to have the Mbappe-level step. Nor do you really play counters that often. Well, maybe more often relative to pre-Valverde times.

He is the Hazard level attacker from the left while he hasn't even reached his ceiling and will be twice as good if he scores as regularly as he is capable of, because he clearly loves it.

Will never be the Iniesta successor. If Barca try to force it, he'll sulk and want out just like Fabregas.
 

Neeraj

Senior Member
He's absolutely got enough pace to gain a few yards on his defender and send the ball to Dembele on the opposite side. It's how he'd be utilised best. He doesn't need to have the Mbappe-level step.

He is the Hazard level attacker from the left while he hasn't even reached his ceiling and will be twice as good if he scores as regularly as he is capable of, because he clearly loves it.

Will never be the Iniesta successor. If Barca try to force it, he'll sulk and want out just like Fabregas.

I don't think so though. He's one of those that has quick acceleration and can leave the defender dead in a short burst; but he isn't nearly quick enough to make longer runs or any of the kick the ball and run sort of runs that someone along the lines of Neymar, etc. provide.

I don't think he should play Iniesta's successor either though. How do you get him to play LAM and still have someone covering the wing? That's a question I don't have an answer for, and it might involve changing how we use Messi, or switching to a 3 at the back system. Either way, we will lose our ability to counter effectively with Coutinho at LW. Having just one quick player in Dembele is not enough; you need at least 2 quick players upfront. Messi, doesn't even bother making runs for the counter nowadays anyway, so it's critical.

Funnily enough, it was Neymar's sheer pace that was actually most useful at Barca. Aside from his clown act, he was most useful with the ability to beat defenders in a foot race. However, it doesn't look like we're buying any winger anytime soon, so Coutinho on LW might be the only alternative that a plain jane and clueless tactician like Valverde sees, if at all he sees even that.
 

El Gato

Villarato!
Don't know what you're worrying about. He played CAM/LAM/LW all of his career. He's just fine. He's more of a Robben/Ribery than Neymar/Mbappe/Dembele. You don't need long runs at all. If you did, you'd be after Bale types. Coutinho is perfect to do a short sprint that leaves 95% of defenders 2m behind him on first touch and takes the shot towards the far-side of the goal or plays a one-two with Suarez.

Great LAM
 

FCBfan22

Senior Member
Don't know what you're worrying about. He played CAM/LAM/LW all of his career. He's just fine. He's more of a Robben/Ribery than Neymar/Mbappe/Dembele. You don't need long runs at all. If you did, you'd be after Bale types. Coutinho is perfect to do a short sprint that leaves 95% of defenders 2m behind him on first touch and takes the shot towards the far-side of the goal or plays a one-two with Suarez.

Great LAM


That's quite hard to do nowadays...

:lol:
 

Joan

Well-known member
I like his role in Brazil, often plays deep but has freedom to go forward. Didn't look suffocated at all these 2 matches he played. Got a lot of shots and scored 2 goals, after all.
 

serghei

Senior Member
Coutinho is great as an AM. Iniesta was also the most attacking oriented midfielder in our team and he scored big goals when he needed him along the years. We just need to find a tactical solution for when he goes forward otherwise there's gonna be a gap there that can be exploited by every good team.
 

El Gato

Villarato!
Coutinho is great as an AM. Iniesta was also the most attacking oriented midfielder in our team and he scored big goals when he needed him along the years. We just need to find a tactical solution for when he goes forward.

The solution is stick him down to LAM/LW and give him a pressing duty at most. You don't need him dropping any deeper than within 10m of the halfway line.

Milinkovic-Savic would be better for the Iniesta job.

[MENTION=22475]FCBfan22[/MENTION] [MENTION=22463]Joan Laporta[/MENTION]
50M for Benzema. Deal?
 

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