7 - Philippe Coutinho - V1

[khaled_a_d]

.

When we had Neymar, Iniesta and Messi, we had a similar problem.
3 creators and Messi wasn't involved AS MUCH as when only Messi and Iniesta are on a field.
Neymar was "taking" a huge part part of Messi's actions and that meant=less balls for Messi.
Less balls for Messi usually ends in less chances for a team than=more balls for Messi.

Neymar didn't really take much from Messi, but he took a lot from Iniesta, probably one of the reasons Iniesta is doing better that Neymar left.

 

[Giginho75]

He can play there , easy .

"there" where?

anyway tonight he had a enough good performance...
he played a lot of balls and always been in the core of the game...
but unfortunately in the worst match of barca in the season...

it will depend how valverde will want to play this season...
if he adopted definitively 4-4-2 or will return to 4-3-3, where theorically his position is on the LW (neymar position), not in the middle.

 

[xXKonan]

If we want to get the best out of him he needs to play on the left, simple as that. He's played okay for Brazil as a RW but he's much better on the left either in the Midfield or on the Wings, It would be a waste if Valverde ends up shoving him as a RM every chance he gets.

 

[Androutsos]

How can anyone say this is a 'bad' performance?

 

[Maxim4]

How can anyone say this is a 'bad' performance?

he is good but very very slow

he did a game much less but next time he played well

it's not his favorite post

 

[BarcaMessi]

If you think Coutinho is slow, you should watch how fast Rakitic and Gomes are.

Iniesta had a good game. Was he fast?

 

[MessiCam]

I don't get it.

Coutinho can't just walk into Iniesta's position... At least not when Iniesta is still operating at such a high level. The only way Coutinho and Iniesta work is if the latter takes on a deeper role or Coutinho plays as left wing. But where does that leave Messi and Suarez?

Now you see the type of headache this introduces and then there are people dead set on us signing Griezmann.

 

[BerkeleyBernie]

Sigh...Coutinho was fine. The few times he lost the ball were on attacking attempts deep in their half. How many times did Messi lose the ball on the dribble this game?

Alaves parked a big fat bus and were good at it, including a class performance by their keeper. The biggest holes were the fullbacks, Digne and Semedo. Digne gave Iniesta little outlet and Semedo was equally ineffective for Coutinho. The game changed when Alba and Roberto were brought on. Suarez is shit at link-up passing in tight buses, breaking down a lot of moves. No excuse for the huge hole on defense that allowed Alaves to break so easily. Rakitic had a fine holding game but neither him nor Paulinho offered much in attack. Iniesta was f'n brilliant.

Alaves should have been down to 10 men on a double yellow for their hacker-in-chief. Payback when Messi was able to convert that free kick.

 

[Barca-4-Life]

I seriously must have been blind the whole game? Honestly quite surprised by how a lot of people seem to think this guys had a "bad" game.

I think he actually had a phenomenal performance, especially accounting for the fact that this was only his 2nd game with us.

Dude came off as extremely confident on the ball, with an excellent vision for through balls, and overall as a solid player with a great understanding of the game and Barca's style.

Yes, he did lose the ball couple of times. But those were mostly on attacking occasions, and that is a normal part of the sport. It happens to the best of players.

Looks like this will be an unpopular opinion, but I think Coutinho had an excellent performance against Alaves.

 

[EdmondDantes]

I thought it was an unnecessary curve-ball by Valverde to start him on the right on his full debut.


He's played there for Brazil before but he was further forward and able to interchange positions freely with Neymar and Jesus. He was OK, but he should have started where he left off against Espanyol. On the left.

 

[MagIX]

Team gets better result with more defensive players and when more balanced.

Too many attacking players seems to kill Barca. The days of 4-3-3 might be over.

Alaves has 10 in defence and 5 of them break for attack lol . They left the middle empty.

Barca better get used to this. Chelsea will try the same and suffocate them in the Italian way.

With 4-4-2 we are beating records

Messi also confirms it

https://www.sport-english.com/en/new...alance-6582040

On Neymar he said: "Neymar's departure has changed our way of playing. We lose lots of attacking potential but it helped us in a defensive sence. Right now we're very well armed in the centre of the pitch. We have more balance and that makes us defensively strong."

 

[Calidad]

Cant for the life of me work out why Valverde decided to play him RM/RW. Why spend all that money to play him out of position? Hopefully it was a one off.

 

[CatalinR10]

 

[Kohe321]

He had a lot of excellent moments. If that was a bad match, good ones don't exist.

 

[ASordidGod]

He was okay. Not his natural position but he looked confident and kept showing for the ball which I like. Some lovely moments but final ball was a little heavy. Overall encouraging, I'd say. Looking forward to seeing him from the left.