He’s suited to playing the way Sunderland did at the end of the season. Pretty much camped in their own box. Ask Coates to hold a line midway between his own box and the half way line and he’ll struggle. He has loads of good qualities but he isn’t quite good enough to play for an ambitious club like ours where much more is asked of centre backs.
Coates suffered an anterior cruciate knee ligament injury and was out for practically the entire season ,his battle to regain the form that won him the best young player of the Copa America he's only now showing signs of winning . Good young talented defender ,who if Liverpool's intentions are to sell off for a paltry sum would be better retained.
He still isn't a regular for Uruguay even before he is injury he wasn't a regular starter.
He recovered from his injury over 14/15 months now
He was with us for two seasons before the injury and was found to be lacking in the Prem a number of times
He just isn't good enough for a team with top four ambitions - he is perfect for a team that sits deep but anything higher and his poor speed on the turn or recovery speed was shown up.
As Borini proved, being good for Sunderland is not the same as being good for Liverpool.
Coates had a few chances in a red shirt I never saw anything more than a lightweight, average defender. Move him on and move on. Perhaps they'll take Borini back while they're at it....
“You cannot transfer the heart and soul of Liverpool Football Club, although I am sure there are many clubs who would like to buy it.”
As Borini proved, being good for Sunderland is not the same as being good for Liverpool.
Coates had a few chances in a red shirt I never saw anything more than a lightweight, average defender. Move him on and move on. Perhaps they'll take Borini back while they're at it....
“You cannot transfer the heart and soul of Liverpool Football Club, although I am sure there are many clubs who would like to buy it.”
Disappointing that Coates did not fulfill the expectations we had for him when he signed. Despite our flurry of activity in the current transfer window so far, I do hope we sign a top class centre half. Regardless of who we have up top, we won't challenge until we have a quality centre back pairing again. The Hyppia / Carragher and Hyppia / Henchoz combinations were good but did not quite match title winning pairings like Ferdinand / Vidic, Pallister / Bruce, Keown / Adams and Terry / Carvalho. In fact, despite having some brilliant midfielders and strikers during the past two decades, we never successfully replaced the leadership and technical brilliance of Lawrenson and Hansen and for me that more than anything is why we have gone 25 years without a title.
On 31 August 2019, Coates conceded three penalties and was sent off as Sporting fell 2–3 to Rio Ave. All three fouls were against Iranian forward Mehdi Taremi.