7 - Philippe Coutinho - V1

[YodaMaster]

Fans are just too fickle. When Coutinho was doing very well last season people called him "the best Brazilian player", "who the hell is Neymar" and now when he is not doing well (for whatever reason) he is a "dumb and moronic player" who "flops no matter what position he plays".

The same thing happened to Dembele. When he was not doing well, people trashed him so much and look what they are doing now.

Coutinho have great qualities, world class player qualities. But he's clearly playing like a moron this season. If you don't see it, you might be one too. Every time that he receives the ball in a promising attack, he starts to dance, shake his ass and feet for 10 seconds to show how technical he is instead of playing a fast pass to a free teammate. It's either that or he'll go for a long rage shot that will fail miserably. That's 90% of Coutinho since august 2018. Clears signs of a moronic player.

He hasn't always been such a moron though I'll recognize. Coutinho and Arthur were actually few rare reasons why I was just a little bit excited before start of the 18/19 season. I like the player but I gotta be honest and tell a player is shit when he really is shit.

About Coutinho being world class... As I said he has world class technical qualities, but he never performed like a world class player on a long enough period. He did good with Liverpool, but he was inconsistent there. He never carried that team for a full season like Suarez did, or like Salah did last year.

Coutinho never was a key player of a dominant team. And that's true. He never even played in a CL contender team until last season.
The only time he looked world class was last summer during WC when he really was Brazil's best player. But that lasted only 4-5 matches...

By reading some of you, you'd think Coutinho was an undisputed member of one of the best teams in the world for years now. That simply ain't true.

Btw I'm not condemning him. I'm just saying there's little chance that he'll develop into a monster while being in a place that is full of incompetent people.

 

[Respekt_III]

Fans are just too fickle. When Coutinho was doing very well last season people called him "the best Brazilian player", "who the hell is Neymar" and now when he is not doing well (for whatever reason) he is a "dumb and moronic player" who "flops no matter what position he plays".

The same thing happened to Dembele. When he was not doing well, people trashed him so much and look what they are doing now.

It's almost as though there are different fans with different opinions. Fans aren't some sort of Hive mind.

He's obviously a world class talent.

Like i said 1 season wonder, a few games in the world cup wont change that. He's incredibly inconsistent bar a single season which is one of key critera for classifying players as world class... Lets agree to disagree.

 

[Zidane82]

Fans are just too fickle. When Coutinho was doing very well last season people called him "the best Brazilian player", "who the hell is Neymar" and now when he is not doing well (for whatever reason) he is a "dumb and moronic player" who "flops no matter what position he plays".

The same thing happened to Dembele. When he was not doing well, people trashed him so much and look what they are doing now.

You make some good points '

 

[El Gato]

Like i said 1 season wonder, a few games in the world cup wont change that. He's incredibly inconsistent bar a single season which is one of key critera for classifying players as world class... Lets agree to disagree.

K. Come back when you actually have an argument bruh. Spitting out 'one season wonder' catchphrases isn't going to impress anybody.

 

[soul24rage]

the thing with Coutinho is that he is or becoming predictable. Most of the time he'll either cut in and pass/shoot or pass to Alba. He needs to develop his game more and right now Dembele rightfully deserves his place in the starting 11. He didn't look confident at all and all these factors result into the performance he produced today. Right now, I think it's risky to play him in midfield at this stage of the season (EV is definitely not going to play him there this season) but hopefully starting next season he can. I really like the player and I hope he becomes a crucial player for our club.

 

[Respekt_III]

K. Come back when you actually have an argument bruh. Spitting out 'one season wonder' catchphrases isn't going to impress anybody.

Yoda covered my thought's exactly, didn't think there was a need to rewrite what he said. How about he 2nd part you know being inconsistent? that doesn't matter does it? I've gone through this shit numerous times and the world class part is a fucking joke.

You've offered absolutely nothing to your argument other then saying he played for brazil so fucking what so did paulinho and he most definitely isnt world class. What he was their best player in the few games they had? but was total crap against the first decent team they faced?

 

[Nothanks]

his best form came when he played with dembele and alba on the left side.
our left side was so dominant but left the right side pretty much dead.

 

[YodaMaster]

At 27 he should be in his prime. Perhaps a new coach will figure out a place for him. He's just not a winger. Even if he played as a winger for Liverpool, it wasn't like this. He played deeper and had a lot more space in front of him. All his best games at Barca have either been as a wide midfielder in 4-4-2 or as an attacking midfielder.

I agree with this of course. I'm pushing for CM Coutinho since the beginning. But guys we can clearly see that it won't happen under Valverde. Today the last 30 mins we had Busquets Rakitic Messi Coutinho Suarez and Malcom on the field. 2 midfielders, 2 attackers + Messi and Coutinho. Well Rakitic and Busquets played as 2 DMs and Messi played as CAM in front of them. Coutinho was the left winger even with those players on the field.

Valverde won't spend time trying to make a CM or even a CAM out of Coutinho. It seems to be so clear by now.
Valverde is also offered another year as the head coach by Barça's genius board.
I simply don't believe that this board+coach combo is competent enough to save a dying soldier in Coutinho.

By the time Valverde will be gone, there's a high possibility Coutinho will be around 28yo and in a bad form. At this point, for sure no one will pay crazy money for him.

If I take everything in consideration, I'm convinced that the best thing to do given the obstacles, is to sell Coutinho ASAP. Get good money for him and invest that money into a proper world class CM or a proper wc winger that will shine at one of those positions from the beginning. So that Valverde or another shit manager will be forced to play him.

 

[Flavius]

Hope he turns the table around. We need him in his top form for UCL...

 

[Joan]

Cancerous thread. Not that I read much of it.

 

[Much2soon]

Coutinho needs to learn that less is more. We see moments of brillance from him only for him to overdue it then lose the ball.

 

[Pepsbarca]

He just is not having an impact on games. Fully expected him to run the game today with Messi out but he was barely involved and the few times he was involved nothing came off for him. Starting to look like a massive overpay by the incompetent board.

 

[Leo_Messi]

He needs a kick in the ass, a serious look at himself and some mental coaching. I suspected him failing here and wrote about it openly 1.5 years ago in this very thread, however I could never have imagined that it would be THIS bad all things considered.

Even critics of his like me are fully aware of this not being his genuine level and that he currently is a player without any confidence whatsoever however he is not helping his case with continuous underwhelming performances. Sometimes if your dribbling is not working, if you can't hit the goal etc. you need to do the most simple of things well. Even that he seems unable to do.

The seniors should try to do their part as well and obviously Valverde. How many more bad games will it take for him to realize that Coutinho is NOT a left winger in our current "system" (4-3-3) or what is left of it?

Play a FLUID 4-3-3 with Suárez as a "left winger" that will cut inside and frequently change positions with Messi in the middle, Dembélé on his favorite "right winger" position but who will be switching positions with Messi and vice versa, Coutinho just roaming freely right behind Suárez and Messi and Arthur and Vidal/Rakitic/Busquets centrally with Alba and Semedo as full-backs. Such a lineup is almost guaranteed to work better for everyone involved.

 

[xXKonan]

I thought his performance vs Eibar was a good sign that Coutinho is trying to fix some of his problems.

But going by this match whatever he had learned from that Eibar match he decided to throw it all out and just keep on doing some of the things people are getting mad at him for. You would think I'm talking about a player that is 20 or something but this guy is 26 turning 27 this year.

It's frustrating because you know he can do better than this and sure he's not a pure winger and he doesn't have the pace but he's really letting himself and the team down with his abysmal decision making and other things.

 

[Potroh]

Play a FLUID 4-3-3 with Suárez as a "left winger" that will cut inside and frequently change positions with Messi in the middle, Dembélé on his favorite "right winger" position but who will be switching positions with Messi and vice versa, Coutinho just roaming freely right behind Suárez and Messi and Arthur and Vidal/Rakitic/Busquets centrally with Alba and Semedo as full-backs. Such a lineup is almost guaranteed to work better for everyone involved.

A lineup like that (which I do agree with) is not possible because of Valverde and of course because of @BBZ.
Coutinho clearly and definitely was bought as an Iniesta replacement, not as a potential winger. He is not a winger and will never be a good one. Barca doesn't even need an actual, true winger on the left, because Alba does that simplistic traditional role well and he is at least much faster than Countinho is.

And you are right, he needs to play behind Messi, Suarez and Dembele.
But Valverde thinks otherwise, possibly because of his defending potentials, which comes first when the mediocre coach tries to be a tactician. He might be a sort of tactician, but a bad one of that.
So poor Coutinho looks to be fed up, dissatisfied, without any confidence, and has no clue what to play and how to do that, because his actual advantages were not really welcomed and he simply seems to be lost.
People may cry out here saying he MUST show his better part, but I think they don't realize that he is struggling because of the system.

Let's just play a simple thought-experiment:
IF the team plays a spectacular ATTACKING type of game, who are the midfielders?
At present there is Rakitic, who is the only one (besides Vidal) who has "some" attacking veins, but the other two, neither Bouskuets nor Arthur are the ATTACKING type.
Iniesta WAS an attacking minded midfielder and he is the one missed in the middle at present, because the other two are not typical attacking midfielders.
But Valverde prefers the ones running more and defending more, so in this moment we have the MOST defend-oriented midfield of Barca for many years!

That's why IF Coutinho could play in midfield, that would be the only solution for him, as well as for the team... If not, he has to go, because in this "pseudo-system" he has no other place...

It's all about Valverde's system, because he is not the man who "easily" gives up his preferred lineup, that probably he considers to be a kind of vision, but actually he simply depends and wins due to the individual talents in the team.
He has no vision whatsoever. Not even a bad one...
If he was with another team, Valverde would DEFINITELY play a more defense oriented system. That's what he likes and seems to be comfortable with.

He made a GREAT sacrifice this year, when the 4-4-2 that he prefers turned again to a 4-3-3 and probably it just happened because of the pressure from the elderly Barca supporters and making room for Dembele, so the spectators did NOT want to see a defending Barca, after being a spectacularly attacking team for decades.

That much Valverde sacrificed from his mediocre mind, but I guess he still didn't realize that without an Iniesta supplement, a creative, extremely skilled attacking midfielder, this team will be a rather style-less formation, still being able to keep the ball, have good possession statistics, but there needs to be SOMEONE in the midfield who is capable and talented enough to feed the 3 forwards, well, at least we play with 3 forwards by now...