Coutinho’s journey to Barcelona is finally over and Liverpool should move on

It’s over, at least a big part of Liverpool fans can say that with some happiness. The story of speculations, newspapers talking nonsense for a big part of the season and faked injuries is over. Philippe Coutinho had his wish granted and got his dream move to Barcelona, becoming the second most expensive player of all time, being sold for £142m.

Honestly, I can say this transfer was good for both sides. Barcelona got their man and Liverpool got the money they wanted, after holding the deal in the summer transfer window. Besides of the great player Coutinho is and the fact that he was adored by many Liverpool fans, we can say Coutinho was never the most decisive player in his five years at Merseyside. He played alongside Suarez, Gerrard and now with Salah and Mané, players who usually deliever in big moments. Not that Coutinho didn’t, but he went missing in many big occasions in his time at Liverpool.

The brazilian leaves Liverpool, after a whole season of speculation (Photo: Getty Images)

At the start of the season, Liverpool showed that they can get results without Coutinho. In fact, in stats shown by Sky Sports, Liverpool have won more games when Coutinho wasn’t playing. When he didn’t play, The Reds won 71% of their 14 games, compared to just 44% when he was on the field. It’s obvious that when Coutinho played, the midfield got more creativity and magic, but these qualities can be found in other players and this is how Liverpool think and hope to reinvest the money received from the transfer.

As I said before, Coutinho is a great player and possesses an ability hard to find, but he is also a player that can be replaced. The main name mentioned by the Liverpool Echo is Thomas Lemar. Despite Sky Sports claiming Liverpool won’t go for him, The Echo says he is top of the list to replace Coutinho. Lemar’s season has not been the greatest so far, with only four goals and four assists, but last season he was influential in Monaco’s title campaing, scoring nine goals and contributing with 11 assists.

According to the Liverpool Echo, Thomas Lemar is the main name to replace Coutinho, with Draxler and Brandt as options (Photo: Getty Images)

Other names mentioned are Julian Draxler and Julian Brandt, a player that interested Liverpool last season. Both, similarly to Coutinho, can play in midfield or as wingers. Draxler started 17 games for PSG this season, scoring seven goals and making four assists. The german is also known by Klopp, having played in the Bundesliga for Schalke 04 and Wolfsburg, being a player with similar playing of Coutinho.

Now going back to the transfer itself. The way Barcelona and the media, especially the spanish, behave in the whole journey was a disgrace. We saw Nike, Barcelona’s kit supplier, announcing Coutinho before he joined and newspapers creating stories through the whole season. After all that, we even heard Barcelona players speaking about Coutinho in public, something that can be seen as an illegal practice, once Liverpool didn’t give them permission to talk about Coutinho in the way they did and try to convince him to join them.

Many people questioned Liverpool about selling Coutinho midway through the season. There are a few differences that made Liverpool sell Coutinho now. Firstly, they got the wanted money, something that didn’t happened in the summer and held the transfer back. And also, Coutinho made it clear he wanted to leave now and, despite all eforts, Liverpool were not able to convince him to stay.

Anyway, this whole situation shows the power the player has compared to the club. Through the whole season, Klopp and Liverpool made it very clear that Coutinho was an important player and he wouldn’t leave. However, we saw that at the end, the player power prevail and that no player can be bigger than the club, as Klopp says in a declaration regarding the transfer on Liverpool’s website:

Philippe was insistent with me, the owners and even his teammates this was a move he was desperate to make happen. Despite that, we managed to keep the player here beyond the summer window, hoping that we would be able to persuade him to stay and be part of what we are looking to do.

I can tell the Liverpool supporters that we, as a club, have done everything within our means to convince Philippe that remaining part of LFC was as attractive as moving to Spain, but he is 100 per cent certain his future – and that of his family – belongs at Barcelona. It is his dream and I am now convinced there is nothing left at our disposal to change his mind.

Of course, it is totally understandable that supporters will be disappointed; this is always the case when you have to say goodbye to someone special. But, as hard as it is sometimes to accept, it is part of life and part of football – individuals have their own dreams and their own goals and objectives in life.

The club received big money from the move, making a profit of £133m. All Liverpool have to do now is reinvest the money smartly and bring more talent than what’s already available.

Coutinho leaves Liverpool having made 201 appearances, scoring 51 goals and became the brazilian with more goals in Premier League history. Liverpool is losing a big and key player for the team. We’ll miss his long range shooting, the passes to Salah, Mane and Firmino, the free-kick and magic, however, as I said before, no one is bigger than the club and Liverpool had to let him go.

Adios Philippe.

 

Four players to watch after Brazil’s olympic triumph

The Rio olympics has now ended and the Brazil olympic football team have won their first gold medal against Germany. Before winning, Brazil were one of the two nations that have won a world cup but never won a gold medal, together with Germany, so this medal meant a lot.

With a young and skillful squad, Brazil started their journey badly, but after more time with players playing together, things got going and there were some players responsible for that and they are what we will talk about.

 

Luan (Grêmio)

After starting the Olympics on the bench, he was one of they key players for Brazil, leaving Lazio’s Felipe Anderson on the bench.

He is a quick and clever winger, who can play as a striker as well. He has scored three goals and made two assists during the olympics and considering the 6 matches played, that is really good.

At the age of 23 he is one the most important players for Grêmio, a team that always fight on the top in the Brazilian Serie A. He has scored a total of 10 goals, combining the league and the Libertadores.

The player was previously linked with Premier League champions Leicester City, but the deal didn’t materialise. He would be a great addition to Claudio Ranieri’s side if he signs for Leicester.

 

Walace (Grêmio)

Another Grêmio player here, a signal that they have really good young players. Walace also started the Olympics on the bench, but the suspension of first choice Thiago Maia gave him a chance and he ended up to be one the key players for Rogério Micale’s side.

He has good defensive awareness, strength and passing. He is the kind of player that never leaves the defense vulnerable and I think he will be one of the best brazilian defensive midfielders in a couple of time.

The 21 year-old has impressive tackling and passing stats, with 78% and 82% of accuracy respectively. He was linked with italian club Fiorentina and portugese champions Benfica in the start of the year, but for now he is staying at Grêmio.

 

Zeca (Santos)

He is one of the players that surprised the most for me. He is a quick and explosive left-back, but played in the right during the Olympics.

Zeca is the best full-back in the Brazilian Série A and we will see him play for Brazil’s national team really soon. Zeca has good defensive skills but at the same time he is a danger going forward.

He has scored two goals this season for Santos and has really good passing and defensive stats. He has 86% pass accuracy and 75% tackling accuracy. He has been linked with the french giants Paris Saint Germain and with Atlético Madrid.

 

Thiago Maia (Santos)

The 19 year-old only played three games in the Olympics but he was one the key players back then. He is a typical box-to-box midfielder, with great stamina and passing ability, qualities that makes him one of the best brazilian young players.

He has impressive stats, with 89% passing accuracy and won the most of his aerial duels, despite not being one of the tallest players at 5ft 11in. He is not the kind of midfielder that scores too many goals, but he certainly adds a lot to whatever team he is playing for.

At the start of the season he was rumored to be one of Antonio Conte’s main priorities and he continues to be linked with a £12m move to Chelsea. He is also linked with PSG as his teammate Zeca.

 

Why so many players are going to China

One of the things that people talked the most recently is the Chinese Super League and the amount of well known players that are going there.

In the last 10 days they broke the record transfer three times with Ramires in fee of £25m, Jackson Martinez for £31m and most recently Liverpool’s winter target Alex Teixeira for £38m and reportedly Liverpool offered £35m for him, so I believe the reason that Shakhtar sold him to China it’s because he won’t be an influential player in Europe, like Douglas Costa has been for Bayern and they won’t regret his sell because the Chinese level is really different for European and if he surprises there it won’t be a surprise for us.

But now, I believe there is three things that are attracting the players to play in China and there is some things you might already know but I want to make it more clear for you, let’s start?

1- WAGES:

I believe this is the main thing that attracts players to there, in a professional footballer career you have nearly 15 years to earn your money and live after you retire, obviously, you can work as a pundit, as a coach or as a manager but if you want to guarantee your life a move to the Chinese league could be the best thing to do. The well known players have huge wages per example, Alex Teixeira will earn £7.6m annually, it’s £147.000 per week and this is huge, in one year he will earn nearly the double of what he earned at Shakhtar and obviously that is the main reason that the players are going there.

2- The search of something new:

This an important factor too because sometimes a player could get bored of playing in a league for too long and an exit from there could be really good and the Chineses are taking advantage of that, it’s another country, another league, another style of playing and this could be what a player want, of course, the European League are more seen but these players that are going to China could be helping on the rise of the Chinese football in the whole world and it won’t be a surprise if we see the Chinese league on Sky Sports in a couple of years, good players are going there and probably it isn’t that bad to watch a league that have the likes of Ramires, Guarin, Gervinho, Demba Ba, Jackson Martinez, Alex Teixeira and among others.

3- The influence from managers, agents or players from the same country:

In a couple of months I saw a really interesting transfer rumor about a player going to China and the player was Wayne Rooney, he was linked with the team of former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, he managed Rooney in the national team and probably he talks to Rooney sometimes, he probably knows what Rooney wants after a season or two and this could be one of the reasons that players are going there. An example of that is Paulinho going to Guangzhou Evergrande, the team is managed by former Brazil national team manager Luis Felipe Scolari, Paulinho was a the 2014 world cup and the Brazilian national team was managed by Felipão (the way the brazilians call Scolari) and maybe he influenced Paulinho to go there and play for his team and in the same team there is some Brazilians or players that played in Brazil like Elkeson, Robinho and Conca, I believe the life in China is really good but not too many players knows that and someone they know or someone from the same country could tell him if it’s a good move and this his how managers and players can influence in a move to China.

That is it for this post about the Chinese League, the season starts in March and we could see other deals happening, we already had a rumor of a £57m bid for Oscar turned down and I believe this league will be very strong in a near future.

I won’t be posting until Tuesday because it’s holiday in Brazil.

Goodbye.

Gabriel Coelho.