Coutinho makes his dream debut, proving that Villa is the perfect club to save his career

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The former Liverpool star, who came off the bench against Manchester United and helped the team score a point, looks like the perfect fit for Gerrard's tactical system.

Aston Villa fans have had a hard time asking Coutinho for a more perfect start.

His equaliser against Manchester United and his assist to Jacob Ramsey brought Villa Park on fire on Saturday, with expectations of him reaching a high level in the process.

The fans who left the stadium ecstatically are fully confident that Coutinho will be a key player for the club in the next five months.

Neutral fans may feel differently, though. People tend to read too much about the perfect debut, and many remain skeptical of Coutinho and wait to see more of his performance.

For example, we all saw what happened to J. Ronaldo at Everton last season, and although he had an incredible start under Carlo Ancelotti, he gradually sank.

But unlike Coutinho, who joined a club fraught with crises and who had no Premier League experience or a clear role at Goodison Park, Coutinho and Villa were a more natural combination. Tactically, his performance as a substitute on Saturday night is likely to be a revelation for the future.

Coutinho has always been a strange player who is not well suited to most traditional positions. He is not exactly a left winger, preferring to play in the left space and is not particularly reliable as the only No. 10 player, with a tendency to fade out or fade in in the game.

That was arguably his biggest problem at Barcelona, which tended to let Coutinho play on the left side of the 4-3-3 formation, but Coutinho was uncomfortable in that position. Except for valverde's first six months at Camp Nou, when he used a 4-2-2 formation, he never really stabilized at any other time.

In that 4-2-2 formation, Coutinho played almost exactly the same role as he played in Villa's Christmas Tree 4-3-2-1 formation: arguably the perfect formation to give Coutinho the most out of his play.

In this formation, the 29-year-old Coutinho will always keep moving in a tight space on the left side, rarely needing to pull back to help defend, he will lurk behind the striker, very threatening. More importantly, the presence of the second 10 reduces the pressure on him to cope.

As we saw in the FA Cup Villa's 1-0 loss to Manchester United, when Buendia constantly found itself with a 5-metre radius between the defence and the midfield, it wasn't easy to defend two No. 10 players.

Then Coutinho should find plenty of opportunities to perform his trademark long-range shooting skills, and Gerald will certainly encourage Coutinho to shoot more long-range shots.

Signing Lucas Digne should also help Coutinho a lot. He may not be a direct replacement for Glalish, but Coutinho's ability is to pass the players and draw defenders to his side, similar to How Glalis creates space for plugged-in left-backs.

It is also an important part of Gerrard's tactical system, where Digne will be allowed to plug in and cross into the box. This Christmas tree formation will draw opponents into a narrow position, which will allow full-backs to sneak into the void and receive the ball on the edge of the penalty area through a quick shift of the No. 8 player.

Some questions have been raised about Coutinho's ability to work with Buendia, and in fact, it looks like Gerrard will have to sacrifice the team's speed to get the two players to start together.

But in addition to having the clear advantage of two smart players who can provide danny Ince with a pass, Gerrard may also seek to use Coutinho as a free agent eight.

This was the role he played at the end of his Liverpool career, and 12 goals and nine assists in the first half of the 2017-18 season also earned him the chance to join Barca.

Coutinho's commitment and defensive prowess are underrated, and as a propellant midfielder under Klopp, he performs well, increasing the verticality of the team, just as Xavi Elliott did before his injury this season.

If Gerrard feels Villa needs to use speed on the counter-attack, then Coutinho could also push forward from a back post. That's what Ramsey did under the new manager, thrusting forward as violently as he did in his player days.

This is thanks to Gerrard's coaching staff, who have set up some complex triangles in midfield, and with these arrangements, Villa can make a one-foot pass through the line very quickly.

Villa's tactical details and the level of preset action in training are now much higher than during Dean Smith's coaching days, and there is no doubt that this will suit players like Coutinho: talented and adventurous, but need to be focused.

Before his perfect debut on Saturday, all of this would have been true. While it's too early to promise Coutinho will succeed at Villa Park, everything is ready and he will find his best form again.