The Philippe Coutinho Thread | Page 52 | Vital Football

The Philippe Coutinho Thread

TBF they showed his best bits at halftime and he'd played a few through balls down the side to Digne. So not all bad.
 
JW1985 said:
Better than the Everton game but that's not saying much. We seem to expect him to just create something from nothing and just sort of leave him to it.
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Pretty sure that's absolutely spot on mate. Various posters over the past few months have said it. I didnt really notice it until recently. Very apparent in our last couple games we either go long to Watkins and if we dont do that its get the ball to Phil at every opportunity.

A good coach doesnt rely on the brilliance of one player. Gerrard is not giving Phil the tools to succeed and maybe Phil won't get better but the coach is certainly a big part of the problem.
 
Players got lazy hiding behind Grealish, then SG arrived and there was a stepping up. But then we loaned Phil and we went back to type.

I had a feeling we should have returned him after the loan. He'd gone some long before the loan was over. And the cost of team play loss is not worth it.
 
tarzan said:
I thought he did alright today. Very skilful.
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He was skilful and it’s joy to watch. But nevertheless, goals and assists are still non existent. He also takes it a step too far sometimes, and gives the ball away from a stupid back heel or whatever he’s trying.

I wonder if as part of him agreeing to come, he’s been promised starts and to play in a certain position?

I don’t see a system that allows him space to play, as it gets too congested. I also don’t see a striker who’s at the level of ability and fitness to play off him.

I wonder if his best position realistically for us, is on the left side of a 4-2-3-1 and his role is a sort of pass-before-the-assist, bringing Digne into play to get balls into the box?
 
Few nice touches today and probably a little more involved than I’ve seen up to now but overall this guy is a total myth and I’m glad the club have only spunked a reported £17m on him atm.

I really wish we had a player like Saint Maximin that just gets at players, has them back peddling a bit like Giggs back in the day. Defenders don’t like players that do this but our players seems scared to do so.
 
He’s not really doing his job when the best we can say is “showed some nice touches”, that’s the bare minimum you’d expect from a player of his calibre.

He really offers little to nothing going forward for the most part and that’s astonishing to me given the quality he has. He is not able to compete at this level anymore by the looks of it.

I will say under a more competent manager who will drive better fitness levels he’s worth another look though.
 
Pangloss said:
He’s not really doing his job when the best we can say is “showed some nice touches”, that’s the bare minimum you’d expect from a player of his calibre.

He really offers little to nothing going forward for the most part and that’s astonishing to me given the quality he has. He is not able to compete at this level anymore by the looks of it.

I will say under a more competent manager who will drive better fitness levels he’s worth another look though.
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To some degree I think you need to carry him, he doesn't press from the front and he isn't going to track runners. I think that would be okay except the likes of Ings and Bailey and even Emi2 are players you also need to carry. Getting Sarr in IMO made sense if the plan was to put more bodies in defensive positions without making too much compromise upfront.

Outside of the backline our Midfield is so weak and then upfront IMO you're absolutely forced into playing Watkins. Its such a dysfunctional unit, Phil is far from the issue, Watkins is far from it too but I think its the cascade of issues that makes us all look at different areas as a problem.

We've got probably 4 key issues. Tactically is the biggest, it seems to applify weaknesses rather than limit them. Second I'd go with centre midfield, it neither protects the backline or adds anything to our attack. I'd go with defensive end as the next area, its just so fragile it likely necessitates an extra body staying back to protect it. We defend with 3 players, we should probably defend with 4-5 players. And then for me attack is last, at least if we solve those other areas we can work on that end of the field. Our attack doesnt have much pace, it certainly is not strong and it is not clinical. However I feel it has enough about it to win games if we can keep the other of the pitch organized.
 
Coutinho doesn't have enough in the tank to be the only, possibly not even the "main", creative force on the team, but if we can take the pressure off him by putting other threats around him (as opposed to full-backs) I think he can contribute enough to justify himself.
 
CDX_EIRE said:
To some degree I think you need to carry him, he doesn't press from the front and he isn't going to track runners. I think that would be okay except the likes of Ings and Bailey and even Emi2 are players you also need to carry. Getting Sarr in IMO made sense if the plan was to put more bodies in defensive positions without making too much compromise upfront.

Outside of the backline our Midfield is so weak and then upfront IMO you're absolutely forced into playing Watkins. Its such a dysfunctional unit, Phil is far from the issue, Watkins is far from it too but I think its the cascade of issues that makes us all look at different areas as a problem.

We've got probably 4 key issues. Tactically is the biggest, it seems to applify weaknesses rather than limit them. Second I'd go with centre midfield, it neither protects the backline or adds anything to our attack. I'd go with defensive end as the next area, its just so fragile it likely necessitates an extra body staying back to protect it. We defend with 3 players, we should probably defend with 4-5 players. And then for me attack is last, at least if we solve those other areas we can work on that end of the field. Our attack doesnt have much pace, it certainly is not strong and it is not clinical. However I feel it has enough about it to win games if we can keep the other of the pitch organized.
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ironically keeping more men back would give the front line more space. If they up the effort they can then be more effective.
 
They have left out Jesus and Martinelli as well. Blimey. They can afford to do that!.

(Meanwhile there were calls for Ivan Toney to get an England call up after he scored against the mighty Leeds and England fans delude themselves that we will win the World Cup.:lol:).
 
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