The Brazilian dynamo has come into his own at Liverpool, and now it's his time to shine.
Two and a half years ago, Liverpool bought a diminutive Brazilian attacking midfielder. Philippe Coutinho was something of an enigma, having mostly disappointed in his 30 months he'd spent with Inter Milan. He wasn't a bad player in Italy by any means, but he'd never come anywhere near showing that he'd realize the significant potential that caused Inter to bring him across the Atlantic in the first place.
Liverpool rolled the dice by bringing in this 20 year old question mark. They didn't spend a ton of money on him by Premier League standards -- some £7 million -- but if Coutinho didn't come good, that would be nothing but money down the drain.
Lucky thing for Liverpool that he didn't just come good -- Philippe Coutinho has exploded since he moved to Merseyside.
Gone is the tentative, inconsistent attacking midfielder who didn't do enough things well enough regularly enough to warrant consistent playing time at Inter. In his place is an almost monstrous player, who creates danger every single time he touches the ball. He can sneak divine throughballs through a tiny crack in a defense, dribble through a multitude of defenders, or bomb in goals from range like he did against Stoke on Sunday.
Coutinho with a screamer to give Liverpool a late lead. #LFC http://pic.twitter.com/8BzgLXrTKt
— Arsène's Son (@hughwizzy) August 9, 2015
And the most frightening thing? The best might be yet to come.
Coutinho came in as part of a rebuilding Liverpool side, coming in alongside Daniel Sturridge to join the ascendant Luis Suarez and the venerable Steven Gerrard in a side that was good, but wasn't the incredible power of Liverpool teams from years gone by. The hopes were high, but there were so many uncertainties ahead for the Reds that no one was sure what the team would do, or what this happy-go-lucky looking Brazilian kid would bring.
After an impressive first few months with Liverpool, Coutinho was a big part of the club's scorching hot run the next season that saw them finish second and take the title race all the way down to the wire. The stars of that team were Suarez and Sturridge, with plenty of praise for Gerrard having a resurgent season and the emergence of Jordan Henderson in midfield -- but quietly buzzing all around them was Coutinho, working his magic and being constantly involved in everything good that Liverpool's attack did.
Then came the struggles of this past season, which saw Liverpool slip to sixth in the EPL table, struggling to keep an effective attack running in the wake of the departure of Suarez and the season-long injury struggles of Sturridge. Coutinho had his own issues early in the season as the whole team trudged from one disappointment to the next early in the season, but as the second half of the season wore on, a curious thing started to happen.
Coutinho started taking over games. Then he started to take over the Premier League, and he hasn't shown any sign of letting up.
Now, at 23 years old and with a Liverpool side that's been again freshly rebuilt and seems to have momentum and hope behind it once more, Coutinho looks poised to break out in a big way. Where in the past he's been a part of a side built around other players, now he is part of the core Liverpool has built around. The attack is on Coutinho's shoulders, and he looks primed and ready to carry them a long ways.
Liverpool have had a number of stars and legendary attacking players come through Anfield Road over the decades. Steven Gerrard. Robbie Fowler. Ian Rush. John Barnes. Kevin Keegan. Kenny Dalglish. Those names and so many others have brought incredible glory and accolades to Liverpool in the club's storied history. Now Coutinho has a very real chance to launch himself on a path to join those storied names that will forever be remembered in Liverpool lore.
He has the skills. He has the talent. He has the chance, and he has the momentum. Now it's up to Coutinho to seize this opportunity that he looks primed for. By the end of this season, he could be one of the biggest stars in the Premier League.
Source: Conor Dowley http://ift.tt/1J9JKpq
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