18 Sept 2013

Blessing or Disaster? - 7 reasons why Coutinho's injury can be good for LFC....

Disaster! Bad news today as LFC confirmed that mercurial attacker Philip Coutinho will be out injured until the end of October. Well, Liverpool's season is well and truly OVER now - without the Brazilian, there's no chance of finishing in the top four, and relegation must now be very real possibility. Of course, I'm joking (!), but there will be some fans out there revelling in doom and gloom right now. Well, in my view - and this may sound like heresy - I predict that Coutinho's absence will make very little difference to the club.

A statement on the club's website today confirms Coutinho's spell on the sidelines:

"Philippe Coutinho will undergo a procedure on the shoulder injury he sustained in Monday evening. He will now have surgical stabilisation on the AC joint in his shoulder. Liverpool hope to have the 21-year-old back in contention again towards the end of October".

One one level, it's a massive blow as Coutinho is a superb player. However, for once, Liverpool have the squad to cover the absence of such an important player, and he (arguably) won't be missed that much for the following reasons:

* Luis Suarez! The Uruguayan returns next week, and he is clearly a perfect replacement. Suarez will fit seamlessly into the team in Coutinho's position - either on the left of a front three, or behind Daniel Sturridge - and after being out for so long, he will be raring to get going, and desperate to make an impact.

* Victor Moses can also play in Coutinho's position, and now that the Brazilian is out, it almost certainly means we'll regularly see a front line of Moses-Suarez-Sturridge, which is a very exciting prospect.

* Additionally, Liverpool also have Raheem Sterling, Jordon Ibe, and Luis Alberto in the squad, all of whom can come into the team and make a contribution. In fact, with Coutinho out, it's possible fans may get to see Ibe play more often, which is great.

* Coutinho is a great player, but the fact is, LFC are unbeaten this season *without* any specific creative contribution from the Brazilian (i.e. No league goals/assists so far). That's not to say he hasn't made an impact (of course he has), but the point is the team is winning without his goals/assists, and will continue to do so.

* This enforced absence may actually be good both the player and the club. Coutinho will be forced to rest, and he'll return refreshed and ready to face the packed winter schedule, which includes a series of tough games. It's arguably better to be injured now than over the Christmas period.

* With another tedious international break from the 5th-19th October, Coutinho will possibly only miss 4 league games (Southampton, Sunderland, Newcastle, West Brom), all of which are eminently winnable without him.

* Over-reliance on one player is a huge negative, and LFC have (arguably) started down that road with Coutinho. Indeed, just look at how the team collapsed into disarray after he went off injured against Swansea. Liverpool will have to learn to win without Coutinho, and other players will have to step up to the plate, and that can only be a good thing.

Don't get me wrong: I'm a huge fan of Coutinho, and you'd always want him in the team, but his injury is not a major disaster, and it's a POSITIVE thing that Liverpool now have the depth of squad to cope with the absence of such an important player.



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53 comments:

  1. Definitely a glass half full approach that I agree with. I'm looking forward to seeing what this team can do without him.


    Granted, it's not ideal to have to play without our best players.


    But it's important to see that this team is not over-reliant on one player. We've shown that we can play without Suarez and without Sturridge. Now let's see what we can do without our creative dynamo.


    Should be a great litmus test for where this team is at.

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  2. The best eleven IMO:
    Mignolet
    Johnson Skrtel Agger Enrique
    Gerrard Lucas
    Coutinho
    Moses Sturridge Suarez

    The second team:
    Jones
    Kelly Toure Sakho Cissokho
    Allen Henderson
    Alberto
    Sterling Aspas Ibe
    We got a great team, maybe still lacks one classy attacking midfielder. alberto looks class at striker position in the u21 game.

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  3. You are a hopeless sunshiner :)


    We would be in much better shape right now had we spent 11.5m on Eriksen instead of overspending 25m on two CBs who were not needed and may never be good enough for a starting position in a top 4 club. That is just my opinion.


    A question for you:
    Would you rather spend 8.5m on Luis Alberto who has almost no senior level experience, or 11.5m on Eriksen?


    If we had done just half as well in the transfer market over recent years as Levy, we would never have dropped out of the top 4 in the first place. IMO.

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  4. agree with the eriksen thing, that's the mistake in this window. we will see with your opinion bout top 4, im optimistic this season.

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  5. agree with the eriksen comment however lets give our current squad some credit lets see how we cope with this then comment after...have some faith

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  6. There is absoultely no postives sure moses and suarez can play but imagine all three of them playing together

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  7. Exactly Jamie,overreliance on one player is not the hallmark of a good team. The way we went into disarray in the swansea match after his withdrawal was awful. Digging deep and winning is fine and it earned us precious points also ,but it cannot be followed as a regular pattern where all the creativity and linking is done by a single player in the second half .Would be great if Alberto or Ibe comes in and does the job in the next game and it will raise the morale of the team also. A guy like Eriksen waiting on the line could have been better. By the way you have put a nice positive spin on this bitter news.

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  8. Agree Eriksen would have been an ideal signing. But not sure whether if he had any interest in joining us. You can only do so much to convince a player and then its down to them obviously. But he would uave been a quality signing yes.
    As for the CBs well i do think they were needed. Whether they are the right players remains to be seen.

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  9. For Saturday I'd go with Alberto behind Sturridge. When Suarez is back I'd put Hendo in the middle with Suarez + Moses wide.

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  10. I agree Jamie! This is not the end of the world, unfortunate yes but just means someone else will get a chance (Alberton, Ibe and Sterling).
    No too too worried to be honest, although we do lack that creativity.

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  11. Please just stop this eriksen talk.he is a good player we didn't get him so move on

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  12. Squad is so much more versatile in options and quality than a year ago. Its still obviously a blow to lose him.
    To lose a player of his quality this time last year would have been a sucker punch, now its clip round the ears.
    The I just hope he is back soon, because he's a joy too watch, and we deserve to see as much of his football as we can. Think we have earned it over the last 5 years.

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  13. That will happen, don't worry.

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  14. Not necessarily the end of the world but certainly a test and if we overcome it, bodes well for the future. If not, we may well pay the price for not bringing in that attacking midfielder (whether it be Henrikh M or someone else) when a key attacker is out injured. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing how the team does now, especially in the second half of games. As it will forced them to look beyond Coutinho to be the conduit for the attacking play.

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  15. We'll miss Coutinho, he may not have goals or assists yet put he runs the opposition ragged and holds possession well to set up attacks, the game against Swansea did change when he went off, we just couldn't get hold of the ball after he went off, but Suarez back will soften the blow even though he probably wont be 90 minutes fit for a few weeks!!

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  16. Over-reliance on Coutinho was a concern for me. And I don't think we've bought an effective replacement for him in the event of an injury. I hope Alberto proves me wrong. Aspas is more of a striker and so struggles in the midfield. I think we should have gone for Eriksen.

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  17. Honda this January, we must sign him

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  18. Suarez is fit don't worry - he's a machine. He played 180 minutes in a 5 day period for qualifiers, scored 2 and assisted 1. Liverpool were kind to give him a practice game before that with a lower level team to keep fitness. He'll be fine - and he'll more than fill the void left by Coutinho - in fact the team will be better. When coutinho comes back, even better still.

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  19. Suarez to play behind Sturridge I think...

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  20. Id agree it perhaps gives a chance to the likes of moses,ibe and sterling to make a name against lesser opposition.



    One thing id like brendan to try is play sakho as a dm instead of Gerrard and push Gerrard further forward.



    Im still surprised that no issue was made of ashley's cynical tackle.

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  21. Blessing in disguise???? That is the single most stupid thing you have ever written. Anyone who serious thinks that Coutinho being out is anything but bad knows nothing about football.

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  22. Well said Jessie. You all seem to forget one little detail. Eriksen didnt want to come to Liverpool

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  23. Your comment shows YOU know nothing about football. Read the article if not go comment somewhere else.

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  24. In my view, Liverpool will be only slightly weaker than they have been up until now, and for only one game. After South Hampton, Suarez is back, and will more than compensate for the loss in the creativity department. No big worry. It's not that Coutinho is not a loss, but Liverpool can play better with Suarez than with Coutinho - Coutinho in addition to Suarez, now that's a juicy spectacle that we will have to wait a few games to see, but the team won't suffer for more than the 1 game where neither are available - even then there are others who can pick up the slack.

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  25. Removing non abusive comments now Jamie? Guess the truth hurts!!


    Please explain how Coutinho being out for 6 weeks is anything but bad for Liverpool?

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  26. I agree JK now the squad gets a test with Johnson and Coutinho out, that's why we have a squad!!!

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  27. Ah ok, when did Eriksen say that? or when did we make a offer him that he rejected?

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  28. Aspas out. Alberto in.

    Mignolet
    Kelly Toure Agger(if fit) Enrique
    Gerrard Henderson
    Alberto
    Moses Sturridge Ibe/Sterling

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  29. So now Moses is part of this exciting attack? Change of tune?

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  30. I've heard this too. When Erikson was hawking himself around Europe we apparently approached his reps and he was not interested in a move to us.

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  31. We're LFC Fans. We can be optimistic even if 12yo play for us. :P

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  32. So a rumour then?

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  33. Honda should be our Plan B

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  34. I would rather have Coutinho in the team than out but it is not the end of the world. Henderson imo should be the player who slots in behind Sturridge.

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  35. Honda is going to AC Milan.

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  36. forced to rest several games in Jamie are you having a laugh....ill get slated but i think hes looked average for the last few games....hes a bit of a one trick pony

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  37. Besides the stoke game, he has been average (Aspas was also pretty good against stoke). With Suarez back, Coutinho will shine again as he'll have more room to operate in - he doesn't cope well with double marking. With Suarez back, teams can't afford double marking anyone!

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  38. Please don't say things as fact as if you know it's a fact. A few days ago, Honda specifically stated that Milan was only an 'option', and he planned to consider all bids that come in, and 'compare' them. He is not nailed on for Milan, and not deal has been signed.

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  39. H has much more to him then that he just has not been showing it the last couple of games. He is young and we shouldn't forget it. Perhaps the pressure that people said we shouldn't burden him with but did anyway has just got to him. A bit of time out may be good as there will be another focus in Suarez and maybe a new player too (fingers crossed). If he can come back in to a winning side with Suarez and Sturridge on form he may flourish again.

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  40. Eriksen picked Spurs, he had numerous offers including Liverpool but he said Spurs showed the greatest interest and Daniel levy went over to Holland personally to sell the Spurs project to Eriksen, it's not the first player to snub us for similar reasons, they need to be more aggressive in pursuing their targets, I'm not sure who to blame fot that!!

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  41. So that is obviously the last 22 league games. We didn't get Coutinho in straight away in Jan though and he did play a decent part for us second half of last season. I would be interested in seeing what it is from Feb but I am sure I did that the hard way and can't be bothered going over it again from feb.

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  42. Jessie you got Hank killed!

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  43. Yeah just rumour. When the transfer window was in full flow it was on one of the rumour sites. So no actual proof we approached his reps but the same amount of proof that we didn't. I find it strange that there was a few links to him early on with many sources saying we were interested and that just fell away though. Almost like the events that were rumored actually happened. Truth is we don't know and may never know so we should probably put it behind us. We can't sign everyone.

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  44. Nope, we can't but we can sign CBs galore though ;)


    Pity we didn't offload one of the CBs but whats done is done.

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  45. Ha I know what your saying but right now we have three fit first team CB's and two of them are not match fit. As well as having only one specialist FB. If we could have done more to sign Erikson its a pity we didn't do it. I don't think it was the fact we got so many CBs that stopped us getting another forward.

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  46. Big miss suarez can come in hendo middle , even allen can play
    suarez,sturridge,moses/sterling,allen/henderson,gerrard and lucas
    when couts comes back its
    suarez,sturridge,moses/sterling,coutinho/allen,gerrad,lucas/henderson
    albero and aspas are there too plenty of options
    thnx rodgers

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  47. I love gerrard and believe he still is a quality player
    but surely there is a better corner taker then him because he is awful
    hendo or alberto can take corners
    stevie just wastes them

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  48. this is our year to win the title.

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  49. I agree. He is also half decent in the air. Not great but a better presence than some. Before the injury Coutinho could have been taking them. He took free kicks for Espanyol.

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  50. jamie who do u think will score the most goals , suarez or sturridge

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  51. its so fustrating we win about 6 per match and stevie wastes all of them then you have west brom one corner one goal
    that game had to be the most fustrating match ever

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