Back in the Premier League, he played 3 games for a total of 174 minutes, contributing 2 goals and 2 assists, and participated in the production of 5 goals.
Someone exclaimed: the former Brazilian magician is back, and the Premier League is not one of his favorite stages.
At the same time, there will be a response: given enough space, Coutinho is a good player, a little tight, and now he can't even carry the ball.
The huge difference in the style of play between the Premier League and La Liga has also made Coutinho Huainan orange Huaibei orange.
01. Currently positioned between the two strikers and the flanks: no ball is better than having a ball
a. Coutinho's ball-free movement: there is a certain level
Coutinho, who will celebrate his 30th birthday this summer, has seen an increase in his awareness of playing football over the years. His no-ball movements in the game are more timely than before, and the timing of the forward insertion has become better.
Under the current Villa tactical system, the full-backs on both sides have good assists, and Ramsey in midfield has a strong forward scoring ability. Coutinho and Buendia are more like roles that switch between the side forward and the second forward, looking for opportunities around the center.
In the Premier League, the profit from no-ball movement is very impressive. Sometimes you don't need to sprint particularly fast (too fast to easily arouse the vigilance of the defenders), as long as you are in control of the timing, you may be able to get a big gift.
Coutinho's first goal since his return to the Premier League came from the back post. You say that such goals are not technically high? The Premier League full-backs do have a gap with La Liga in terms of protecting the backs of the centre-backs.
Coutinho is not without such moves in La Liga, but many times he is limited by the opponent.
Including the match against Leeds United in the early hours of this morning, this time Coutinho wants to cut in front of the back point, if McGinn's straight ball is not intercepted halfway, Coutinho will definitely get the opportunity to face the goalkeeper with a single knife.
The Premier League has big problems with the protection of the back point space, and Coutinho's progress in the movement of the ball in recent years needs to be thanked for Klopp's guidance, and also thanks to the accumulation and progress in ball quotient brought about by Barca's precipitation in recent years.
b. Give him space and shine: Coutinho is currently in the dividend period
Statistically, Coutinho's success rate in every game after returning to the Premier League is far less than when he was at his peak (or rather, during the Liverpool era).
He now scores and assists with eye-catching goals, or because the Premier League has not eaten through his personal characteristics for the time being, giving him a lot of space to take the ball and handle the ball, amplifying the advantage of passing.
As mentioned above, Coutinho's first goal back in the Premier League came from a wrap-up of the back post. Then the second goal after the return in the early hours of this morning, the same opponent left the defender too far away, giving Coutinho extremely sufficient adjustment and leg swing space.
Of course, the chance and space for shooting adjustments is also due to Coutinho's current progress in no-ball movement and position selection.
Cristiano Ronaldo has just returned to the Premier League and scored goals continuously, also because the opponent feels that he can't stick to him. For the perception of space, the Premier League defenders are deficient in crisis prediction.
Perhaps in the future, they will take the initiative to observe Coutinho's selection in advance, which will make the latter a little uncomfortable, but at least Coutinho has enjoyed his dividend period.
Coutinho's second assist of the game can be said to bring together multiple flaws in the Premier League and fully release his personal advantages.
When Coutinho picked up the ball, the Leeds Defender lacked the determination to really get closer to him and then fully released the huge space at the back post.
Coutinho is currently very inefficient, but the rate of change of direction and get rid of the foot is still superior, so it is very easy for him to slam the ball and change to the back point without the opponent really grabbing.
Ramsey followed up with a score, a very common shot in the Premier League, and also allowed Coutinho to find his long-lost magic.
02. Coutinho is in a very average state of foot at the moment: some things may not really go back
a. Coutinho feels very average under his feet: after a pause, the explosive force becomes much weaker
After three games since his return to the Premier League, Coutinho has a 22% success rate and a 28% success rate for one-on-one matches at his feet.
A lot of times Coutinho's passing performance after running at a constant pace to find an empty position is good, but if he pauses at his feet, the mistakes at his feet against the defenders in front of him can also be laughable.
This time, Coutinho wanted to play with flowers on his feet, and as a result, his left and right feet were incongruous, and he almost lost his center of gravity and fell to the ground, and the ball was naturally handed over to the opponent for no reason.
Looking at this wave of attacks, Coutinho wanted to go straight to his teammates in the first place after taking the ball on counter-attack. This is his advantage, under the influence of Klopp's whirlwind of fast-throwing and Barca's passing system, Coutinho is now much more aware and rhythmic in handling the ball than it was in the beginning.
As a result, the first pass was unsuccessful, the second time he took the ball and wanted to start again, Coutinho was cut off almost without suspense. Now that he is relatively still, if he tries to make movements, people will appear very stiff.
In the last round, everton, he won 2 of the 11 one-on-one confrontations, including 6 defeats at his feet and 3 attempts.
coutinho's defensive problems at Villa are not conspicuous: but not in the big club
Coutinho's current output capabilities on the offensive end are not enough to be a real core, more like a technical sapper in the system.
The problem is that such a role may be part of the defensive burden in the big team. Coutinho's current physical fitness and running don't really support that. His positioning at Villa has made his problems on the defensive end less abrupt. However, the team conceded the second goal of the game, Coutinho is responsible.
As for Coutinho, he did have reason to say that he didn't need to go as deep as the defense into the small penalty area.
The problem is that the Premier League centre-back's sense of anticipation of the crisis is indeed biased, and it is impossible to ask Mins to cross the protection in advance, and Coutinho's failure to follow Rodrigo is one reason for the loss of the ball.
It is clear from the GIF that Rodrigo suddenly stepped forward from the confrontation with Coutinho, and Coutinho realized the problem, but he failed to keep up.
With such a conceded goal, Coutinho will not be blamed too much at Villa because of his higher offensive privileges. But going to the big clubs, Coutinho's offensive contribution is not enough to fill the holes on the defensive end.
We can say that Gerald really likes Coutinho, he is willing to bet on the Brazilian magician, and is currently being rewarded.
03. How long can Coutinho be on fire? The more you score, the happier Barca becomes: Villa please buy out
a. Fight speed, rely on no ball: Coutinho's two major advantages
This game against Leeds United was Coutinho's best performance since returning to the Premier League. In fact, it is also related to the fact that Leeds United has more space on the defensive end, which is conducive to Coutinho to play with the ball.
His goal loss in this game, the success rate of confrontation, and the efficiency of his performance are the best after his return.
Ramsey's first goal in this game was to take advantage of the opponent's lack of defense, and his flexible turn broke the game instantly. Coutinho then gave a straight shot into the depths of space, allowing Ramsey to single-handedly break the goal.
Such a large depth of space is indeed the most suitable for an attacker.
Don't stick to the ball, get space and quickly complete the pass, this is the secret of Coutinho's current success.
b. Coutinho returns to the Premier League to perform so well: will Barca be embarrassed?
One might argue that Coutinho would find the manual when he returned to the Premier League and Barca would be embarrassed. But this may really be too much to think about. After all, for Barca, the better Coutinho performs, the more likely he is to be bought out.
After all, in the future plans of the Red and Blues, there is no place for Coutinho for a long time. If he can be bought out by Vera, that's the best outcome.
After all, given Coutinho's fixed salary expenditure of 16 million before tax (plus some floating bonuses), it is a good thing for Barca to be able to get rid of this burden. It would be a surprise if you could get a transfer fee of 30-40 million euros from Villa.
Not even ruling out the possibility of other teams bidding in the summer, if Coutinho continues with such a high-profile statistic.
Conclusion:
Returning to the Premier League after 4 years, Coutinho was in a trance. It was still the best stage for him, but he had his best 4 years.
But is Coutinho really a loser? In the four years since he left Liverpool, he has received more than half a billion pre-tax salaries (although 10 million yuan has been deducted to Barca as a transfer fee), and he has had the glory of La Liga, bundesliga, champions league and German cup, and copa del Rey.
Now he enjoys the cheers of the Villa fans, the happiness of Coutinho, maybe many people just don't know, and he can really appreciate the bittersweet and bittersweet in it.