7 - Philippe Coutinho - V1
- Thread starter AnfieldEd
- Start date
FinBarcelonafan
Well-known member
Valverde will laugh to that.
wisconsincule
Senior Member
Yeah I’m fearing this as well. Unfortunately Cou as a LW gives us absolutely nothing. It’s pretty sad how awful he is there.
God Serena
New member
Comparing a 21 year old who is just now getting his first ever minutes in La Liga after playing in the 3rd division to our most expensive signing in history who was supposed to come in and instantly elevate the team...
Is that seriously what you're doing? I would gladly take a performance like that from Alena.
jairzinho
Senior Member
He is a fantastic player but he has to adapt his game to the system, otherwise he’ll end up being largely irrelevant, just like James and Isco, players who excel playing at the heart of a diamond but are limited otherwise and contribute little defensively. As Pique says he has to finish the season strong.
No one says that's the case. But if he's bad, just say so. No need to call him all those other things, unless his attitude is rotten, or he's poisoning the locker room, etc. That's currently not the case.
xXKonan
Senior Member
The question is just how long are we going to keep giving him chances to regain his form.
He's been in this funk for the past 4 months now and he still hasn't shown anything that he's close to getting out of it. What use does he have right now? His off the ball movement isn't great especially in defending and he often loses balls just doing dumb shit and his goal scoring dried up.
His price-tag in no way should be the reason we have to keep trying to recover him. It's not fair to guys such as Malcom and Alena to be forced to sit and hardly get minutes because of Coutinho who hasn't shown anything in awhile he deserves to be starting or be one of the first names off the bench.
He's been in this funk for the past 4 months now and he still hasn't shown anything that he's close to getting out of it. What use does he have right now? His off the ball movement isn't great especially in defending and he often loses balls just doing dumb shit and his goal scoring dried up.
His price-tag in no way should be the reason we have to keep trying to recover him. It's not fair to guys such as Malcom and Alena to be forced to sit and hardly get minutes because of Coutinho who hasn't shown anything in awhile he deserves to be starting or be one of the first names off the bench.
Leo_Messi
New member
I am trying to keep my calm and purely look at his situation rationally despite always being against his transfer and predicting him not to succeed at the club.
However I really struggle to find any positives. I don't see him fitting anywhere other than in a 4-2-3-1 formation but even that will be a challenge with Messi going nowhere and having a tendency to drift into the middle to dictate play. Precisely where Coutinho is at this best supposedly.
Can't have him play in a 4-3-3 as he is too slow, too predictable and not being able to stretch the pitch nor a big enough goalscorer.
Can't play him in the middle in a 4-3-3 as he does not have the positional awareness, the vision nor the "tiki taka" game to truly succeed for us and justify his absurd transfer nor the defensive contribution.
Not only is he a misfit even if we had the most ideal squad or manager with our current squad that contains the likes of Messi, Suárez, Dembélé or even Malcom (although almost never used) trying to fit him into the starting lineup is impacting the entire team negatively. He has played mostly (almost entirely) as a "left winger/attacker/striker" in a 4-3-3. Since Messi and Suárez are more or less guaranteed a starting spot in each single game, Coutinho's direct competitor is Dembélé. The much greater talent, fit, player, contributor and one of the few players in our team that offers PACE and UNPREDICTABILITY and genuine individualism where he can create something out of nowhere. An trio upfront consisting of Coutinho, Suárez and Messi lacks pace, a defensive contribution without the ball and that coupled with an overall slow and old midfield (since Busquets and Rakitic are always certain of playing time) while the likes of Arthur are not quick either nor the likes of Vidal although one of our biggest hard workers if not the biggest he is soon to be 32 as well so not really a youngster anymore and far form his prime.
So many problematic issues involving him and so few solutions. Even if he somehow started to perform decently. Just a misfit from the start. Not sure what Robert saw in him that reminded him of Iniesta when the player types are completely different.
As I wrote a few times already, the best thing we can do is pray and hope that the likes of QSG, Chelsea, Man Utd or others will buy him for a decent fee. Just move him on before the wound gets infected and an amputation will be necessary in the worst case scenario.
Not even mentioned what [MENTION=19222]xXKonan[/MENTION] rightly pointed out in regards to Coutinho stealing minutes from more deserving players who are not stinking the place up continuously and who are better fits in Aleñá and Malcom.
Or his mentality. Or the fact that he for months has looked like in a depressive state with little fire, will, energy or happiness on the pitch.
I can accept players having a bad day, for missing easy passes, chances etc. but I cannot accept players who do not give their all when everything else is not working. It is your freaking duty to work even harder when you have a bad game to try to compensate for your bad performance. Something players like Vidal always do and something which I personally admire greatly. Coutinho is that type of player. Just his attitude alone irritates many people, I suspect. At least myself.
Sorry for the long post but wanted to include as many nuances and details as possible as they are rather crucial to understand why he is failing.
However I really struggle to find any positives. I don't see him fitting anywhere other than in a 4-2-3-1 formation but even that will be a challenge with Messi going nowhere and having a tendency to drift into the middle to dictate play. Precisely where Coutinho is at this best supposedly.
Can't have him play in a 4-3-3 as he is too slow, too predictable and not being able to stretch the pitch nor a big enough goalscorer.
Can't play him in the middle in a 4-3-3 as he does not have the positional awareness, the vision nor the "tiki taka" game to truly succeed for us and justify his absurd transfer nor the defensive contribution.
Not only is he a misfit even if we had the most ideal squad or manager with our current squad that contains the likes of Messi, Suárez, Dembélé or even Malcom (although almost never used) trying to fit him into the starting lineup is impacting the entire team negatively. He has played mostly (almost entirely) as a "left winger/attacker/striker" in a 4-3-3. Since Messi and Suárez are more or less guaranteed a starting spot in each single game, Coutinho's direct competitor is Dembélé. The much greater talent, fit, player, contributor and one of the few players in our team that offers PACE and UNPREDICTABILITY and genuine individualism where he can create something out of nowhere. An trio upfront consisting of Coutinho, Suárez and Messi lacks pace, a defensive contribution without the ball and that coupled with an overall slow and old midfield (since Busquets and Rakitic are always certain of playing time) while the likes of Arthur are not quick either nor the likes of Vidal although one of our biggest hard workers if not the biggest he is soon to be 32 as well so not really a youngster anymore and far form his prime.
So many problematic issues involving him and so few solutions. Even if he somehow started to perform decently. Just a misfit from the start. Not sure what Robert saw in him that reminded him of Iniesta when the player types are completely different.
As I wrote a few times already, the best thing we can do is pray and hope that the likes of QSG, Chelsea, Man Utd or others will buy him for a decent fee. Just move him on before the wound gets infected and an amputation will be necessary in the worst case scenario.
Not even mentioned what [MENTION=19222]xXKonan[/MENTION] rightly pointed out in regards to Coutinho stealing minutes from more deserving players who are not stinking the place up continuously and who are better fits in Aleñá and Malcom.
Or his mentality. Or the fact that he for months has looked like in a depressive state with little fire, will, energy or happiness on the pitch.
I can accept players having a bad day, for missing easy passes, chances etc. but I cannot accept players who do not give their all when everything else is not working. It is your freaking duty to work even harder when you have a bad game to try to compensate for your bad performance. Something players like Vidal always do and something which I personally admire greatly. Coutinho is that type of player. Just his attitude alone irritates many people, I suspect. At least myself.
Sorry for the long post but wanted to include as many nuances and details as possible as they are rather crucial to understand why he is failing.
Last edited:
xXKonan
Senior Member
I want him to do well and prove me wrong.
But how many times in that past 4 months have we said "Time to step up man and show us what you're made of" only for him to massively disappoint us. He just doesn't want to shoulder any responsibility, and guys like Suarez, Dembele and even Malcom(Classico Copa) decided to take the initiative when Messi was either out Injured or on the bench.
Dembele was injured and Messi was coming back from Injury and sat on the bench, Malcom stepped up to the plate to take the initiative in the Copa Classico, a guy who didn't get to play much this season but he busted his ass out there to fill in for Messi, while Coutinho was doing next to nothing.
The way Malcom is being treated you would think he was the one having these disastrous performances, but nope Coutinho is and he's somehow ahead of the likes of Malcom and Alena etc in the pecking order. And he doesn't even fit what we need from the team either.
Valverde's plan is clearly not working worth a shit in trying to get Coutinho's form back. Even though he's being benched by Dembele, one would think this would light a fire under his ass but in reality, it's not working at all.
At this point I think even guys like Pep, would have dropped Coutinho in favor of other options like Malcom or Alena to be first off the bench/rotational players ahead of Coutinho regardless of his price tag.
But how many times in that past 4 months have we said "Time to step up man and show us what you're made of" only for him to massively disappoint us. He just doesn't want to shoulder any responsibility, and guys like Suarez, Dembele and even Malcom(Classico Copa) decided to take the initiative when Messi was either out Injured or on the bench.
Dembele was injured and Messi was coming back from Injury and sat on the bench, Malcom stepped up to the plate to take the initiative in the Copa Classico, a guy who didn't get to play much this season but he busted his ass out there to fill in for Messi, while Coutinho was doing next to nothing.
The way Malcom is being treated you would think he was the one having these disastrous performances, but nope Coutinho is and he's somehow ahead of the likes of Malcom and Alena etc in the pecking order. And he doesn't even fit what we need from the team either.
Valverde's plan is clearly not working worth a shit in trying to get Coutinho's form back. Even though he's being benched by Dembele, one would think this would light a fire under his ass but in reality, it's not working at all.
At this point I think even guys like Pep, would have dropped Coutinho in favor of other options like Malcom or Alena to be first off the bench/rotational players ahead of Coutinho regardless of his price tag.
FinBarcelonafan
Well-known member
What system are you talking about? This team relies on personal brilliance and that's about it.
FinBarcelonafan
Well-known member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elWE2lBynp8
His game vs Vallecano. It's painful to watch. He adds nothing to this offensively!! It's outrageous. This system doesn't fit him at all. He likes to have space, but with Barca he has none and he seems to have no idea what to do most of the time and I think that's something Valverde needs to tell him. He looks clueless.
I thought he was a quite good dribbler before, but now he can't dribble either. Weird.
His highlights from the first season:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrVhaG4nwSA
Look at the difference. (Of course, this is highlight video, so he looks a bit better). He seems to find his teammates way better, makes some clever backpasses from time to time, he doesn't lose the ball as easily and he is able to win 1vs1 battle (he can't now) and HE is not afraid to challenge players 1vs1. Now he is not even challenging anyone. MASSIVE DIFFERENCE, but it's the same player. I can't believe it's the same player as this season.
I would say the biggest differences, the confidence is gone, he doesn't seem to find his teammates the same way(He looks clueless what he is supposed to do) and he loses every 1vs1 battle due to being weak (BUT he wasn't BEFORE!). Not to mention giving up way too many turnovers this season.
His game vs Vallecano. It's painful to watch. He adds nothing to this offensively!! It's outrageous. This system doesn't fit him at all. He likes to have space, but with Barca he has none and he seems to have no idea what to do most of the time and I think that's something Valverde needs to tell him. He looks clueless.
I thought he was a quite good dribbler before, but now he can't dribble either. Weird.
His highlights from the first season:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrVhaG4nwSA
Look at the difference. (Of course, this is highlight video, so he looks a bit better). He seems to find his teammates way better, makes some clever backpasses from time to time, he doesn't lose the ball as easily and he is able to win 1vs1 battle (he can't now) and HE is not afraid to challenge players 1vs1. Now he is not even challenging anyone. MASSIVE DIFFERENCE, but it's the same player. I can't believe it's the same player as this season.
I would say the biggest differences, the confidence is gone, he doesn't seem to find his teammates the same way(He looks clueless what he is supposed to do) and he loses every 1vs1 battle due to being weak (BUT he wasn't BEFORE!). Not to mention giving up way too many turnovers this season.
Last edited:
Sorin
Well-known member
Time to realize that he just doesn't work for whatever reason and bench him for players that might be less talented but work harder, or simply fit better. Just don't force him down our throats in every damn match like we are some clueless fans that barely discovered football. This is the thing that pisses me off the most, just because he cost us 160m he deserves more chances than other players like Malcom or Alena. Hell, if we wanted this kind of production we could've just kept Denis. He wouldn't stink up the place with his attitude and would collect just a small fraction of the wages we waste on the Brazilian. And even then, he might have overperfomed Coutinho with this many chances.
Just take the loss and move on.
Just take the loss and move on.
FinBarcelonafan
Well-known member
It's hilarious you mention D. Suarez but I think it's perfect comparison. He looks exactly like Suarez. Weakling, losing the possession too often and sometimes making nice move. Perfect.. We paid 160 million euros for D. Suarez.
clemente
New member
Why not compare them? Think about for how much we would sell Alena for. Just because Coutinho cost a lot, he isn't suddenly from another planet.
MTL_Barca
Well-known member
But he should be. He is "proven world class" in his prime (age) with lots of experience. And yet here we are and the only good thing you can say about his performance is that it would've been good for Alena...
Of course money is decisive here. We paid 150 million for this guy ffs, of course has to show far far far more than a 21yo la masia player who just got promoted this season.
Home of Barca Fans
