It's time to have the talk...

How bad is Coutinho playing ATM? He's going missing and isn't creating or scoring at all.

 

jeez give him a couple weeks to return from injury

 

Isn't creating? Have you not seen the balls he's playing to Salah?

 

Cmon now lets not delude ourselves

 

It's a long shot to say he is very poor but I can see where you're coming from.

If we get £100m plus then I hope we bring in someone who can play a little deeper too and perhaps a little more consistent.

Coutinho does come up with moments of magic though and that's what has launced him into that higher bracket of footballers. Even today at times he offered that threat.

 

Think it’s really hArsh - he’s the only one in midfield who can create, dribble and pass, and has shown that throughout. Special player.

 

He was marked out of the game yesterday. Usually this means other players have extra room but in our case, the one with time of the ball was Jordan "Backpass" Henderson.

 

Agree - he struggled yesterday because he was marked out. Chelsea didn’t care about Milner and Henderson because they knew they can’t do anything on the ball.

 

I think he's struggling a little because he's playing CM. We've had this discussion on here many times before; he performs better coming off the left

 

That's a tad unfair - Hendo overhit at least 3 forward passes into the crowd

 

Disagree - I think it’s his best position. He is struggling a little because there’s little support behind him but he is producing brilliant numbers.

 

You lot do know her only back from injury and I don't think has managed one 90 mins yet.

Give him a bit of time.

 

Is it possible that this is part of his (his advisers) strategy?

When a player is not playing well and you get a huge amount, aren't you going to more likely to sell? Than if he is your star player.

There is no doubt that in recent performances he is not worth the bids for him. The club should have a conversation with him and tell him that LFC will accept x amount for him in the summer and that he should give his all for the team. No further distraction.

 

We'll never agree on this. Surprising really since you love facts & figures and he's always poor in that position.

I think it's a lack of space to exploit. When he's on the left and comes inside, the oppositio midfielders are already occupied by our midfield so he can take advantage. When he starts in the middle, their midfielders are focused on him.

Don't you find out a bit strange that Brazil made comments about wanting to pay him in CM but won't until he plays that position regularly for Liverpool then bang, he's playing CM!

 

Coutinho plays better when Can is on the pitch as Can has the possibility to carry the ball forward.

 

Or perhaps even pass it to him.

It's an unconventional approach compared to Henderson's English style but sometimes actually passing the ball to a team mate like coutinho can pay dividends.

 

Look you clowns, the reason he was marked out the game yesterday was because Conte had us drilled brilliantly. Coutinho wasn't able to do anything outstanding as his MO of cut in and shoot or cut in and pass a wonderball was stopped by our midfield and back 3. The back 3 shut off the passing lanes, backed up the CM and whenever coutinho was up against one of the CMs, there was normally another chelsea players to the left so if coutinho went right there wouldn't have been any space.

In fact the one time, coutinho had space, he took on whoever it was (maybe drinkwater), comitted our defender, the ball went to ox who prodded it through to salah to score (thought bakayoko should have cleared it). He was also quite unfortunate with 2 throughballs, 1 for salah which dave did brilliant to cut out and 1 for salah which Christensen only just managed to get a head to.

 

Have to agree, I thought he played well but nothing special.

 

Sorry Jatt but if he goes and if we get "£100m plus" there are bigger requirements to this team than replacing Couthinho, a new keeper and new defenders are a priority, we've proved we can win without Couthinho but we've also proved over and over again that our current keeper and defence isn't good enough to win trophies.

 

thats all true BUT if you add in him having to be sitting cm as either henderson or milner were running about anywhere they felt like

Its like having a thoroughbred pulling a plough while your carthorse runs the national.