Philippe Coutinho

[sne]

Had 25 touches and made 16 passes with a 68% passing accuracy apparently.

No one should expect his defensive contribution to be noticeable but the point of having him in the team surely is to make him have the ball as much as possible. He's not been great away from VP and the opponents play their part in stopping us but we are failing as a team to do anything at all atm.

The midfield 3 of Ramsey, McGinn & Luiz is just a terrible fit. Why we are persisting with it I'll never know. There are other threads for discussing who is the main culprit there but if we aim to play Coutinho we must change something so he gets more involved and that let's us keep the ball higher up the pitch.

Looking more and more likely he won't be here next season IMO as I can't see how then financial side of it can work and frankly I'm not sure we can carry a £430k/w nice to have if we don't get him involved in the games anyway.

[Zatman]

Club should make an ultimatum this week. If he wants to stay sign the contract

If not drop him for the rest of the season as we are wasting valuable minutes for players we own and who will be here next season 

[OutByEaster?]

2 hours ago, Zatman said:

Club should make an ultimatum this week. If he wants to stay sign the contract

Isn't the ultimatum the other way around?

Barcelona are rumoured to have put a very similar proposition to us - if we want him we need to pony up, if not they'll move on and try to find other suitors.

I don't think anyone is waiting on Coutinho - at the moment Barcelona and Coutinho are waiting on Villa agreeing to pay.

[theboyangel]

If we sign him, great but we need to sign much better around him than what we’ve got.

I’d also be happy if we didn’t sign him permanently as we’d have more funds to rejuvenate the squad where needed

[Made In Aston]

I was all for signing Coutinho, but if it means not being able to strengthen more important positions, then I think we should move on. Buendia has shown enough in patches to suggest he can step up. 

Also, I think Gerrard will play him even when he is not in form as he doesn't want to upset Phil. That's not a good situation to be in. 

Edited April 24, 2022 by Made In Aston

[The Fun Factory]

I still think he will sign. Barcelona want to get rid of him and I don't think there is a huge list of suitors willing to pay a wage to him/or his agent,,will expect.  Basically a premier league club or he will have to go out on loan again to perhaps an Italian club with Barca subbing some of his stupidly large weekly wage.

Edited April 25, 2022 by The Fun Factory

[bannedfromHandV]

I don’t think he wants to be here, the shine and novelty seems to have worn off quickly.

I guess there’s only so many times you can watch the ball bounce off Watkins and go in the wrong direction before you lose interest.

Edited April 25, 2022 by bannedfromHandV

[rodders0223]

I'd try and get him on a free and if Barcelona don't want to play ball walk away.

He gets worse by the week and that's very system driven but even still he hasn't pulled up trees to have anybody else come in for him.

If anything it is helping us. I can see Barca being lumbered with him.

[Reivax_Villa]

We don’t need him.

He will set us back.

[Delphinho123]

He’s a wonderful player and I absolutely love watching him play. I disagree with most on here about not wanting to sign him and him setting us back. 

It’s all down to money and there will be a cut off point as to what we can afford / are willing to pay. 

Right now, £28m and £250k a week or whatever he wants to get paid is a helluva lot of money over the length of a contract. 

Personally, I’d pay the money if the wages were more reasonable around the £120k mark. If Coutinho wants mega money though, I don’t think we’ll be able to afford it with a transfer fee also attached. 

I’m of the opinion you buy players to compliment Coutinho rather than just label him as a luxury player we can’t afford to have in the side. With a decent midfield behind them and a striker who can control the ball better in front of them, you’ll see some wonderful things from Coutinho and Buendia next season. 

Ultimately, as much as the result is ‘all that matters’, Coutinho makes football exciting. He does things none of our other players can and gets bums off seats. I value that very highly! Love watching him play.

[Hank Scorpio]

He has Newcastle written all over him

[The_Steve]

Newcastle aren’t going to be paying £400k pw either. It’s just press hyping them up. They want them to do well. 

[Stevo985]

We should be signing him and addressing the other issues in the midfield to ensure we get the most out of him

[Delphinho123]

14 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

We should be signing him and addressing the other issues in the midfield to ensure we get the most out of him

Exactly. 

If we add some steel in midfield and players who are comfortable in possession, but let Coutinho go, we’ll then be looking for a player like Coutinho to unlock defences!

Grealish had quiet games for us too. Part of that is because they can’t do it all on their own. I’m not sure Grealish ever played with a decent midfield behind him at Villa, even in the Championship. These players will shine when surrounded by better players. 

Edited April 25, 2022 by Delphinho123

[danceoftheshamen]

I don't think he'll stay personally, especially after our alarming slide. Would agree it has Newcastle written all over it, just the type of player their Zillionaire owners will want to "show off" their financial muscle. They need a big marquee signing (or three) and i reckon he'll be a target. As for FFP? Well it only seems to affect the not quite so rich clubs rather than the real ones it is meant to target such as Man City & now Newcastle. It appears if you are that rich it doesn't count. Chelsea is another, however they were fortunate to do most of their huge spending prior to FFP so they largely got away with it.  

I see us as a bit like a Chelsea but coming in after the horse has bolted so having to do things more carefully / gradually.

Edited April 25, 2022 by danceoftheshamen

[Laughable Chimp]

The reactions on here would be a lot different if we actually scored any of those chances against Spurs in which he was involved in most of them.

[Sulberto21]

Few people are saying that Watkins was isolated on Saturday and Bailey and Coutinho went missing.

However there was a few occasions where Watkins got into good positions down the sides of the box and either had a blocked shot or got the ball taken off him.

But if he had the ability he could have pulled the ball back or squared for Coutinho to tap in. He did it once in the first half but Bailey spooned over.

The game is played off the ball as much on it - Coutinho’s movement in every game off the ball has been very good.  He’s like Van der Vaart was for the Spuds, however we rarely find him in the positions where he can tap in. That’s the problem not Coutinho. 

[HanoiVillan]

On 24/04/2022 at 07:45, DCJonah said:

I'd also be weary of signing him because what happens if Gerrard doesn't work out? He's not here for any other reason. 

This is a fair point. I keep pointing out the warning of Everton's poor decision-making, and there is the potential (note I'm saying the potential, not that it would happen) for a James Rodriguez situation. 

[danceoftheshamen]

2 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said:

The reactions on here would be a lot different if we actually scored any of those chances against Spurs in which he was involved in most of them.

Exactly this! This is why I think he'll maybe decide to go elsewhere. He could do nothing more in that game (Mainly 1st half). Created so much & was let down time after time by his blank firing teammates.

[PussEKatt]

14 minutes ago, danceoftheshamen said:

Exactly this! This is why I think he'll maybe decide to go elsewhere. He could do nothing more in that game (Mainly 1st half). Created so much & was let down time after time by his blank firing teammates.

Hopefully SG is going to get players in that will accept those chances and if that is the case then Coutinho will stay.