Philippe Coutinho

JohnN said:

Assuming Coutinho stays, could a midfield of FDJ - Arthur - Coutinho be utilized?
FDJ could cover the DM position and has good vision and attacking attributes too.
Arthur is good in keeping possession and distributing the ball as well as covering space when defending. He is not so good at the final third, but Coutinho there
would be lethal.
Is this too attacking and vulnerable at defense, a.k.a unbalanced?

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Against the majority of la liga teams it would be fine if only two of coutinho, suarez and Messi are playing. Depending on the team it could also work with all 3.

A few key things for this to work
-up his work rate and stamina
-increase his situational awareness
-not having other slow players around him.

A moment of appreciation to the most expensive singing in our club’s history

In all honesty though, there is great hope for Coutinho and many of us as fans have been ungrateful. Reflecting at Coutinho’s seasons, he is actually a great Deco type of player which will work well with two of the three other midfielders (Arthur, FDJ, and Busquets). Coutinho was forced to play as a winger and rely on his physical abilities to run as opposed to his brain and technique. He took one for the team because Barca did not have and adequate LW.

The thing is we are truly fucked because E FUCKING V doesn’t have a plan. Greizman and Coutinho cannot play together as long as there is Messi as well in the field. All three are not wingers, they cut to the middle early on and rely on their technique and brain; they are second strikers/attack midfielders

We have one pure center forward only called Suarez and one winger only called Dembele .. and we have three second strikers/attack midfielders

I honestly can see Griezman play in one place only and that is instead if Messi. Otherwise it will be a sad story of Griezman playing off position as a winger and failing to keep up with the pace


Alternatively Dembele needs to be transformed into a LW and need ri step up his game. This way you have Messi as a right second striker and Suarez/Griezman as a center striker. You also have Coutinho/Griezman as a LCAM

The Sporting Department and the club thought Cou could be the Iniesta successor but failed to take into account to the coach we have and Coutinho's weaknesses and other attributes.

Valverde wasn't a guy who had the patience to try and make Cou look passable as a CM in this team or didn't have an idea how to do it while trying to minimize his flaws. Cou isn't like a KDB who not only had the ability, but he had the work rate and intelligence to pull it off while having a Coach who can make him even better.

Just a trend in trying to convert #10's into CM in this team. While others could make the switch, so far we haven't had that luck. Funny thing is Ozil was apparently our backup option to Coutinho if we didn't get him during January of 2018. And if you though Cou didn't fit, Ozil would have been an even worse choice.

xXKonan said:

The Sporting Department and the club thought Cou could be the Iniesta successor but failed to take into account to the coach we have and Coutinho's weaknesses and other attributes.

Valverde wasn't a guy who had the patience to try and make Cou look passable as a CM in this team or didn't have an idea how to do it while trying to minimize his flaws. Cou isn't like a KDB who not only had the ability, but he had the work rate and intelligence to pull it off while having a Coach who can make him even better.

Just a trend in trying to convert #10's into CM in this team. While others could make the switch, so far we haven't had that luck. Funny thing is Ozil was apparently our backup option to Coutinho if we didn't get him during January of 2018. And if you though Cou didn't fit, Ozil would have been an even worse choice.

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It's hard to make Countinho a CM with last season's personnel. We tried it at first with Dembele on the left but it didn't work because we had Coutinho, Dembele, and Alba all attacking on one side with the right wing completely void. Maybe it could have worked if Dembele swapped to the right, but then you'd be relying on Suarez as an inside forward. I think that might have been better but it still brings a new set of problems.

I think Couts in CM could work in a 433 next season if Griez plays off the left, but we'll see what happens.

We have a habit of buying players without properly considering their strengths, weaknesses and preferred positions.

We buy them and then rely on the coach to make all the pieces fit and worse we have a coach who is unimaginative and clueless when it comes to tactics. Look how obsessed Simeone is with tactics here.


Despite Greizmann scoring abilities, neither Simeone or Deschamps used him as a 9 and if they did it was really rare.

All this time he’s been operating as a second striker or sometimes as a #10 but as usual we now expect him to function as a 9 or winger. But I really hope he does well here he’s a great player and experienced.

The Coutinho problem is another challenge. He played well for Brazil in the copa but that was in a 4-2-3-1 and even if we adopted that here Messi would obviously be the #10. Besides the 4-2-3-1 is too much of an adventurous system for Valverde anyway.

jairzinho said:

We have a habit of buying players without properly considering their strengths, weaknesses and preferred positions.

We buy them and then rely on the coach to make all the pieces fit and worse we have a coach who is unimaginative and clueless when it comes to tactics. Look how obsessed Simeone is with tactics here.

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And yet he has failed to make the most out of:
Thomas Lemar record signing and big talent before he arrived.
Gameiro, Jackson Martínez, Vietto, who all were considered great attacking additions at the time.
And Costa + Morata hasn't exactly set the world on fire and made Atletico as competitive as the signings promised.

So let's not overestimate Simeones abilities to get Atleticos attack to work due to tactics. He has had difficulties in the past, and could have the same with Felix.

Gameiro, Vietto, Martinez great attacking players....
Ok man.

I would not want Coutinho to leave the club. It can work very well here. Anyway, Valverde will not be here for eternity.

Maxim4 said:

I would not want Coutinho to leave the club. It can work very well here. Anyway, Valverde will not be here for eternity.

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Keep Cou sell EV heehehheehe

Cou-FDJ-Arthur let’s go

Either we sell him in 6 days or he stays.

Unbelievable.

Devils said:

Either we sell him in 6 days or he stays.

Unbelievable.

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With Chelsea banned that was our best chance. But they can be back in the market next summer and Barca has a good linage of selling surplus requirements for decent fees there.

Chelsea and PSG were always going to be the most probable spots--it is not all bad to keep him another year and see if he can adapt to some ACM play and if not his market value will be similar to this summer.

Not like we are also seeing mega bids for Isco or James or other of the sort of out favor middle of the park attacking creators who don't do anything defensively. Now maybe United is stupid enough with Dybala--but even that will be kind of like the Barca-Valencia keeper swap where the two players official value is not their real value and both clubs can save face.

Can put Ozil--worst case of all in this group.

Not like a unique Coutinho issue but of these I personally think he is the best one--just a bad fit with a Messi centric team unless he truly can show some adaptation and development to play deeper and more centrally like a true ACM.

We are so dumb if we loan him out with the option to buy. It'll only decrease his valuation if he plays badly for another team. Plus, even if he does well, the other team will only pay what he's worth now. Literally makes no sense to loan him out when we just paid 150m on him like 18 months ago.

Surely it would be an obligation to buy. Personally I think he stays, if he leaves we are 1 attacker short, which means Neymar surely is coming.



Edit: Still cant believe we paid 145ME+boni. Jesus.