Liverpool FC Forum

[devaney]

It's fascinating reading this stuff. We don't want Coutinho to go and yet we are happy to buy VVD. Football this summer has gone a tad crazy. If Neymar hadn't been sold for nearly £200m would Barca be offering such crazy money? Coutinho has been behaving like a spoilt child. He is paid £7.5m a year plus bonuses and he treats the club in a despicable manner. Yakka are you really happy to force a player like that to stay with the club. He is inconsistent and our results when he doesn't play aren't that bad. 50% of games won when he doesn't play and 55% of games won when he does play. To me he is not a massive game changer. Good but not £118m good. If Barca do force FSG's hand with an offer close to £150m then I would question their sanity for not taking it. Coutinho has let both himself and the club down massively. Used to be one of my favourite players but that is no longer the case. Frankly he is not worthy to wear the Liverpool shirt ever again 

[aCe']

It looks like he is off this window if reports are too be believed, 149 million pounds

If true, that's a pretty nice piece of business from FSG. He's worth nowhere near that, Imo, but happy to take their cash.

And replace Phil with who? A 21 year old who has never played in a league as quick or as physical as the prem before.
27 years since we last won the title and FSG's master plan is to sell our best player and replace him with a 21 year old kid...

Beats selling him and not replacing him

I'd want more from the club if we are selling him to be honest. I'm clear on wanting him to go but unless we bring in VVD, Lemar, and a 3rd player then its a transfer window in the wrong direction as far as I'm concerned.

I disagree with people understating his importance to the side. The only player we have with comparable talent and impact is Mane. Even when Coutinho isnt contributing goals and assists, his general play makes us a better side to watch and a harder side to deal with. He is a big game player but he's also exactly the type of player you need against the smaller sides that sit deep (long shots, dribbling, through balls, and always a danger around the box).

The amount of money we get for him is irrelevant. This window has made transfer fees irrelevant to be honest. Coutinho isnt a 145mill player and neither is Dembele. What matters is what we end up getting in return; as things stand, it seems like its VVD and Lemar. Get them both in and we've taken one step in the right direction and one step in the wrong one. We'd need a 3rd signing to make it worthwhile.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

You are all living in la-la land if you think Coutinho is the only player in our squad who'd kick up a fuss to try and force through a move to Real Madrid or Barca. The likes of Mane and Lovren did a similar thing at Southampton to force their way here and they'd no doubt do the same again if offered the chance to move to say Real Madrid and take another step up the career ladder.
Phil just happens to be the one in the spotlight because he's the one they have bid for but if you lot think Mane or Firmino etc would behave much differently then you are kidding yourselves. I wouldn't mind but Phil's behaviour hasn't even been that bad by Barca/Real standards, players have literally gone AWOL and officially gone on strike to try and force a move through to those clubs.
Phil is no different to 99% of players, the likes of Daniel Agger are a rare breed.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

It's fascinating reading this stuff. We don't want Coutinho to go and yet we are happy to buy VVD. Football this summer has gone a tad crazy. If Neymar hadn't been sold for nearly £200m would Barca be offering such crazy money? Coutinho has been behaving like a spoilt child. He is paid £7.5m a year plus bonuses and he treats the club in a despicable manner. Yakka are you really happy to force a player like that to stay with the club. He is inconsistent and our results when he doesn't play aren't that bad. 50% of games won when he doesn't play and 55% of games won when he does play. To me he is not a massive game changer. Good but not £118m good. If Barca do force FSG's hand with an offer close to £150m then I would question their sanity for not taking it. Coutinho has let both himself and the club down massively. Used to be one of my favourite players but that is no longer the case. Frankly he is not worthy to wear the Liverpool shirt ever again 

27 years and counting mate. The reason Barcelona are willing to spend an absolute fortune on Coutinho is because at 25 they believe over the next few years he will develop into a genuine world class talent and I must admit I tend to agree with them. If you honestly believe that the way to break our 27 year drought is to sell our best player then I'm sorry I completely disagree with you.
It's alright saying let's take the money and reinvest it in the team but there are no guarantee's that strategy will work, in fact statistically speaking the vast majority of transfers turn out to be damp squibs, very few of them turn out to be roaring successes. Signing players is a high risk occupation. Even when you think you are buying proven quality they often fail, I mean who would have thought that the likes of Crespo, Schevchenko and Torres would turn out to be flops at Chelsea?
We already have a borderline world class talent at the club, why roll the dice? Every time we have rolled the dice in recent years it hasn't paid off, in fact the last time it did was 1987 when we sold Ian Rush.

[bunglemark2]

Eh, he doesn't want to be here. What's your point.

[Klopptomaniac]

Dropped by Brazil 

Argue all you want about selling him but I've accepted he's gone. Like it or not when Barca come calling they'll pull every trick they can to ensure they land their target, and their target will dance to their every beat. We've scored 8 goals in 3 games, I don't think his loss will actually affect our attacking output in terms of goals scored and I'm willing to hedge a bet statistically we'll be very similar to last season. I'm more concerned about numbers more than anything, and quality of numbers at that. No denying Phil is quality but if we sign the 2 we're currently chasing then he's free to go, the club has recovered from a sh!tload worse than losing a player of his calibre, Suarez and Torres were both better and I had higher hopes for Sterling.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

Eh, he doesn't want to be here. What's your point.

Suarez didn't want to be here either but he still nearly led us to the title. My point is if we keep on selling our best players any time the likes of Barca and Real come knocking then we will never win anything ever again. We are not going to be able to compete with the likes of City and United over a 9 month season with decent players. We need more than decent, we need top, top players because that's what they are buying. How can we put together a team of top players if they are continually being poached by other clubs?

[kartiek]

Coutinho will for sure as hell want to be here come Friday. How can you not with all the talent at play? Especially if we get Lemar and VVD as well.

[redshade]

https://www.thisisanfield.com/2017/08/p ... al-stress/

I didn't know emotional stress can cause back injuries .

[maguskwt]

https://www.thisisanfield.com/2017/08/philippe-coutinho-trains-brazil-claimed-back-injury-due-emotional-stress/

I didn't know emotional stress can cause back injuries .

I'm not joking but it actually could. Stress can cause muscles to tense up. Some peeps could have it quite bad...

[Santa]

Double Post

[Santa]

For faking an injury then passed fit by the Brazilian team doctor...Coutinho should be fine and have his salary deducted to the maximum allowed under club's rule.

If he's still here and will not buckle down then he should be frozen out and make to train with the U23 so he can kiss his World Cup good bye.

Time for the club to make a stance before this cancer start spreading to the other teammates

[eds]

For faking an injury then passed fit by the Brazilian team doctor...Coutinho should be fine and have his salary deducted to the maximum allowed under club's rule.

If he's still here and will not buckle down then he should be frozen out and make to train with the U23 so he can kiss his World Cup good bye.

Time for the club to make a stance before this cancer start spreading to the other teammates

Agreed Santa.

He has acted despicably and as far as we the fans are concerned he should rot in the reserves for the next five years.

Conte has made Costa look like an absolute clown for his antics, and we should take a page from his book in dealing with this little prima donna.

And if we do sell him would love to play Farcelona at some stage in the CL this season, the look on Suarez and Coutinho's faces when we knock them the f**k out of the comp, would be one of our greatest ever nights.

   

[devaney]

Yakka I would have sold my Granny to Everton if it meant we could have kept Suarez. I'm sorry mate I don't feel the same about Coutinho. Name me one top team that Suarez played for where he couldn't get a game. Coutinho couldn't get a look in at Milan and that wasn't that long ago. Yes he is a good player and yes he has improved but he he not in the same class as the Suarez's and Gerrard's of this world. Coutinho is replaceable, Suarez wasn't.

[aCe']

Look, nobody said Coutinho is at Suarez's level. I personally think he isnt far off from getting to that level and his development t the club shows he is as currently as close to a world class talent as we've had since Suarez and Gerrard. Your Inter Milan comment is also unfair, he was young and playing for a side that won the CL.

There arent many players in football that have the skillset Coutinho has. Barcelona know that and you'd think Liverpool fans would as well. He's a creator and a scorer, and he's equally as comfortable playing out wide as he is playing deeper and more central. The main thing he does -and Suarez also did that- is that he makes the players around him better.  The closest player to his style of play in world football is probably James Rodrigues but even he has isnt as good a playmaker as Coutinho is nowadays.