Who is Liverpool's most important player? Most fans would probably choose Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez, or Daniel Sturridge, but Reds legend John Barnes believes that accolade belongs to a different player entirely.
According to Barnes - who inexplicably ended up BEHIND Suarez in the club's recent '100 Players Who Shook the Kop' (100PWSTK) poll - Liverpool's mercurial Brazilian Philippe Coutinho is the club's most important player. He told 5-Times:
"With all the talk about Luis Suarez and his goals at the weekend, I still think Philippe Coutinho is our biggest miss. When he doesn’t play we don’t have that natural flair and creativity.
It also has consequences for Daniel Sturridge and his positioning. I’ve noticed he comes too deep, we know Suarez is going to run anywhere but when you look across that front line without Coutinho, they all have similar styles.
"Sturridge is a dribbler, Moses is a dribbler whereas Philippe is looking to play people in. He’s our most important player going forward".
I'm not quite sure I agree with Barnes's view here. Coutinho may well develop into the club's most important player, but looking at things objectively (in terms of specific, measurable impact on the team) I'd argue that Daniel Sturridge deserves the label more.
* 8 goals/2 assists in 8 games this season, which means that Sturridge is (arguably) the de facto 'most important' player at the club right now.
* Take away his goals this season and the Reds would be mid-table at the moment (or worse).
* 24 goals/assists in 25 appearances since arriving in January. A superb record, and underlines once again his importance to the team.
* LFC unbeaten in 85% of games since Sturridge signed.
Coutinho is fantastic, end Sturridge's specific, measurable impact on the team right now makes him a more important player (IMO), with honourable mention to Simon Mignolet, who has saved the club at least 6-8 points in the league already.
Barnesy isn't the only one who thinks Coutinho is top dog, however. In a recent interview, Toure dismissed suggestions that Suarez is the king of Anfield, and instead, anointed the Brazilian as Liverpool's best player. He explained:
"I've [trained] with him [Luis Suarez] and I was all over him. Coutinho is the best player here, I think. I call him ‘my player’. He’s going to be massive this year"
Coutinho has one assist and no goals so far this season, but once he gets into the swing of things, I'm sure that will change.
Jaimie Kanwar
NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
According to Barnes - who inexplicably ended up BEHIND Suarez in the club's recent '100 Players Who Shook the Kop' (100PWSTK) poll - Liverpool's mercurial Brazilian Philippe Coutinho is the club's most important player. He told 5-Times:
"With all the talk about Luis Suarez and his goals at the weekend, I still think Philippe Coutinho is our biggest miss. When he doesn’t play we don’t have that natural flair and creativity.
It also has consequences for Daniel Sturridge and his positioning. I’ve noticed he comes too deep, we know Suarez is going to run anywhere but when you look across that front line without Coutinho, they all have similar styles.
"Sturridge is a dribbler, Moses is a dribbler whereas Philippe is looking to play people in. He’s our most important player going forward".
I'm not quite sure I agree with Barnes's view here. Coutinho may well develop into the club's most important player, but looking at things objectively (in terms of specific, measurable impact on the team) I'd argue that Daniel Sturridge deserves the label more.
* 8 goals/2 assists in 8 games this season, which means that Sturridge is (arguably) the de facto 'most important' player at the club right now.
* Take away his goals this season and the Reds would be mid-table at the moment (or worse).
* 24 goals/assists in 25 appearances since arriving in January. A superb record, and underlines once again his importance to the team.
* LFC unbeaten in 85% of games since Sturridge signed.
Coutinho is fantastic, end Sturridge's specific, measurable impact on the team right now makes him a more important player (IMO), with honourable mention to Simon Mignolet, who has saved the club at least 6-8 points in the league already.
Barnesy isn't the only one who thinks Coutinho is top dog, however. In a recent interview, Toure dismissed suggestions that Suarez is the king of Anfield, and instead, anointed the Brazilian as Liverpool's best player. He explained:
"I've [trained] with him [Luis Suarez] and I was all over him. Coutinho is the best player here, I think. I call him ‘my player’. He’s going to be massive this year"
Coutinho has one assist and no goals so far this season, but once he gets into the swing of things, I'm sure that will change.
Jaimie Kanwar
NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
coutinho is overated , way too weak
ReplyDeletein the first 3 games he was the poorest player after aspas
he has only one main attribute the through ball and teams now know how to stop that
he is destined to fail
you will be begging for him to leave by january
sturridge ,mignolet,suarez ,johnson and gerrard in that order
ReplyDeleteare now the most important players
I sincerely doubt anyone will be 'begging for him to leave' come January.
ReplyDeletejamie how come you did not add henderson but added skrtel
ReplyDeletecoutinho is our pappis cisse,/jelavic/ charlie adam
ReplyDeleteone season or half season wonders
i think however he could be a decent cm in the modric role
i think sakho and henderson should have honourable mentions .....sakho will pretty soon displace agger and henderson is already proving to be pretty undroppable
ReplyDeletewhy not ?
ReplyDeletedo you think lfc fans care? , they turned on skrtel,reina , now gerrard even joe allen and sterling who everyone last season agreed first 3 months thought were our best players bar suarez
owen ,mcmannaman ,keegan
ReplyDeleteno one likes them , we say you will never walk alone
but then boo owen ,torres etc
lfc need to stop singing it if they do not mean it
reina walked alone , this year no one said nothing
i do not hate coutinho
ReplyDeletebut people have rated him way too highly he is just average nothing compared to suarez or sturridge
even suso has more potential
coutinho is one hit wonder and a one trick pony
Gerrard is still the man at the moment. Coutinho Has so far provided no assists or goals, he is a good player, bit lightweight though,by no means our most important player.
ReplyDeleteIt's not about one player, it's a TEAM. If they can gel well together, who friggin cares if one is playing better than others.
ReplyDeleteIts not just about measurable stats, it's the way coutinho creates himself and other players space and brings other people into play allowing them to grab assists and goals with more ease.
ReplyDeletethat is the most important thing the bit lightweight ,
ReplyDeleteand that means any dribbling quality or passing
is useless
coutinho is too fail
Look at what happened with Swansea when Coutinho got injured.
ReplyDeleteWhy are you posting under a different username? Please do not use multiple accounts.
ReplyDeletewho is the guy in the picture?
ReplyDeleteand why should i say your name
Suarez for me by a country mile - he is our only world class player and that is reflected in what other clubs are currently willing to pay for him. The guys on your list will be and are already very important (Gerrard isnt quite as vital as he was IMO) but no-one's knocking with 50m yet for any of them.
ReplyDeleteI personally expect Suarez to stay and if so, he and sturridge will see us finish in the top 4. From there anything is possible.
I'm going to reply on behalf of everyone that's read this, you're wrong.
ReplyDeleteMignolet is our most important player. Simply because who would replace him if got injured now?? Brad Jones doesn't really cut it as back up...
ReplyDeleteYou're deluded if you think Suarez is going to stay
ReplyDeleteour key players this year have been mingo hendo and sturridge with kolo getting a mention tino hasn't contributed anything of note to our current season
ReplyDeleteCoutinho is a key player in our squad, for the first 4 games we were winning, he walked off against Swansea, and suddenly we drew,a looked like the worst team, then we lost to Southampton, his absence had immediate impact, and we were screwed over until suarez came back
ReplyDeleteYou know he's gone in January do you? Any chance you could pick my lottery numbers as well :-). If we're still top of the league in 2 months time, it might be an easy decision to stay.
ReplyDeleteAren't we joint top of the league with virtually zero contribution from Coutinho? I rate the guy highly too, but the most important payer for us? Not yet...
ReplyDeletehow am i wrong?
ReplyDeletewhy do you rate him highly ?
ReplyDeletehe is not good enough ,too weak and too small
he has one main skill but teams know how to stop that now
Lets just say everyone saw how much he wanted to leave last summer. We all know how much he wants to play for Real Madrid. And I honestly doubt he would've changed his mind about that in a couple of months!! Liverpool aren't on the same level as Madrid and won't be for a while unfortunately
ReplyDeleteyeah but if lfc do not want to sell him it does not matter what suarez wants
ReplyDeletelook up lewondowski
The only reason we didn't sell him in the summer was because we didn't have enough time to find a replacement
ReplyDeleteI don't blame him for wanting lo leave last year's Liverpool team because he's one of the best players in the world and we have been an average 7th in the league over the last three years. However, this year's Liverpool side is a different beast altogether. Maybe I'm an optimist, but I wouldn't want to leave anfield quite so much if I were him
ReplyDeletewe knew suarez wanted to leave all summer that is enough time
ReplyDeleteand after the carroll debacle i very much doubt lfc will consider a big money sale in january
The only players I can honestly say that Some Liverpool fans have turned on have been Gerrard (unjustly), McManaman (unjustly) Owen and Torres.
ReplyDeleteOwen and Torres have both been boo'ed, rightly so.
Whilst Owen was a great player for us, he couldn't give a shit about the Club.
Torres, well no surprise why Liverpool Fans have no respect for him. Lets be honest, he hasn't what you called helped himself.
Gerrard had his shirts burned when he nearly joined Chelsea which was idiotic and actually made me ashamed to be a Liverpool Fan..
Some fans still believe that McManaman held the club to ransom and stiffed us by leaving for free when in fact it was Liverpool who tried to screw McManaman. I guess he just returned the favour.
As for the other you mentioned, have any of them ever been boo'ed
Any of them had there shirts burned?
how many big money January sales can you think of apart from torres
ReplyDeletejanuary is when you sign players out of favour
he can leave in the summer
Oh I definitely think we're on the up don't get me wrong! :P I just don't think we're title contenders (Hopefully the team proves me wrong!!)
ReplyDeleteyeah but never means never
ReplyDeletedespite any circumstance
so why were they made to walk alone
follow celtic who actually do what they preach
Sterling got some serious abuse against Palace. People forget he's 18...
ReplyDeleteNo one offered enough money for him in time! Soooo we couldn't replace him. And lots of big money deals have happened in January, I won't be surprised if Suarez goes whether it's January or July
ReplyDeletearsernal did lfc rejected
ReplyDeleteand if no one wanted him in the summer
why would they want him in January when there is a premium on wanted players
the only team i can think would pay that money 60-70mis chelsea
ReplyDeletewhy would lfc sell to chelsea but not arsernal
Just.. So many things wrong, that I don't know where to start..
ReplyDeleteCoutinho's one of our most naturally gifted players, nobody (of sound mind) is going to be lobbying for us to sell him in January, that's just moronic.
I think you miss the point of the song. It signifies the unity felt within the club. If you love the club and give everything for it, no matter what role you play, you'll always have the solidarity and support of the millions of fans the club has, it's about facing any adversity you face whole-heartedly.
Those people who do not adhere to the principal aren't going to have this support i.e. Abandoning the club if the going gets tough. For instance, joining a major rival, it's like a stab in the back.
The fans regularly accept people who have left the club once the dust has settled. Keegan, Owen, McManaman are beloved club legends. Even now, I don't really begrudge Torres leaving anymore.. We got £50m for a world class CF turned 'tryer'. Not gonna complain.
I don't think we'll win the league either, but if we keep Suarez and sturridge fit who knows, particularly if Coutinho comes back in soon because if 1/3 of voters on here are right, and he is better than these two we will be pretty terrifying! :-)
ReplyDeleteWhy would we sell to a direct rival ?! No one who we would actually sell to offered enough money.
ReplyDeleteThere won't be a premium on Suarez, he will go for however much he is worth which is around 50 mill.
name me one then
ReplyDeletehttp://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/transferrekorde-international/transferrekorde/transfers_alle_default_default_default_alle_winter.html
ReplyDeletesuarez is by far the best
ReplyDeleteconsistency is what counts
and we have not seen enough of countinho to make a fair judgement
Having Sturridge, Suarez and Coutinho playing in the same team is a mouth watering prospect!
ReplyDelete"Coutinho's one of our most naturally gifted players"
ReplyDeletebased on four months , pappiscisse would be pele based on his first 4 months
that is you're interpretation of the song
rarely any fan thinks of owen as a legend despite him being better then fowler
and mcmannamn is better then gerrrad
First of all, I don't think he's weak. He took some decent clouts when we beat Man U, and bounced straight up - that impressed me. He is quick, skilful and knows where the goal is, all very important attributes in the PL. It is his eye for a pass that impresses people the most, to the point where many believe he has the potential to be as good as Ozil, which is some compliment.
ReplyDeletewell coutinho does not deserve to be with them
ReplyDeleteand suarez isapparently off by january
so it will be just sturridge by june
I already know why you don't like Coutinho but I just have to disagree. And hopefully we replace Suarez with someone just as good who doesn't banned!
ReplyDeleteHave you been in a coma or something, because Coutinho's been at the club longer than four months.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest that the song is quite clearly allegorical of commitment and strength in adversity, not an abiding contract that 'once you've played for us you'll be loved eternally, no matter what', as you seem to imply.
How is Owen not a legend of the club? Youth product. Balon D'Or winner. His heroics of the 2001 FA Cup. Also, any time Iwen was even remotely linked to a return to Anfield there was a vast amount of sensationalism and hype, people were always excited by the prospect of him maybe returning.
McManaman was a good player, but you're not going to see quotes such as those from Zidane, Xavi and Iniesta about Gerrard for Macca. Not a chance in hell.
that is the problem
ReplyDeleteowen has achieved way more then fowler carried liverpool for more longer and won trophies by himself
but owen will never get the same respect
and mcmannaman just because he left people have forgotten how important he was
teams used to believe if they stopped mcmannman they would stop liverpool , maybe not as good as gerrard, really suprised he was not voted above suarez
then keegan , why is daglish viewed as superior because he won some more trophies why is that logic not applied to owen and folwer
spot on phil ....my only concern with tino is where to play him when fit .im not convinced he can play in midfield with us with our current players....rogers will pick lucas and gerrad and imo that wont work with tino.If we are to use him in that role he needs two mobile players who will do the donkey work.That leaves him to play up front on the wing in a role which he is ineffective
ReplyDeleteive watched them all and kenny is the best followed by barnes and gerrard
ReplyDeletehow about the bench ?
ReplyDeletecoutinho was so poor againts villa and man u
it made me question how the great lfc get to a level where performances like that were not questioned and coutinho did not get dropped, good players play good every game
like suarez
wow you are really old
ReplyDeletelets face it sureaz is never going to be replaced like torres or alonso are yet to be replaced
ReplyDeletei agree with you every player should earn his jersey ..i show no favoritism to any player if you dont perform or fit the system you should be dropped
ReplyDeletemaybe i would make an exception for mignolet
ReplyDeletejones's best is worse then mignolet's worse
we realy need a good back up player
I think a lot of Liverpool fans do massively respect what Owen achieved at the club, I think the hype surrounding any return to the club is proof he was still loved at the club.
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone's forgotten the quality Macca had.. He's working with the youth set up now, so he's clearly very appreciated.
I think Dalglish is widely regarded as one of the best ever British footballers and Suarez is within. The top 10-15 footballers in the world right now, that's why these people are held in higher regard. As much as Macca was good, there's no way that he has ever fit into either of these categories..
as a rule a goalie will get more time any way but if the errors became regular the same rule should apply
ReplyDeleteTHAN. THAN. THAN. FUCK ENGLISH. i mean FUCK YOU.
ReplyDeleteMignolet is world class, as Sturridge has been all season. How much would we expect for either of them. Right now £40m would'nt buy Sturridge. I agree about Suarez being world class, but so are the other two, IMO.
ReplyDeleteTorres HAS been replaced. Sturridge? Suarez? Suarez can be replaced it's just a matter of whether we do or not
ReplyDeleteYou are a class A idiot. Your a manc on here to cause trouble and argue. Suarez may go if Real come in for him which may or may not happen. Coutinho is quality and was getting back to his best just before he was injured. Rodgers is building a quality team and things are going well and nothing you say can change that, so get back to the manc forums you clown.
ReplyDeleteHe gas a great touch and his movement in the middle of the park is exceptional! A whole new dimension when he plays…
ReplyDeletemy vote was for mingolet cause God alone knows where we would've been with pepe 'sellout' reina in goal
ReplyDeleteonly 9 points off the relegation zone
ReplyDeleteso people do not get too happy
glen johnson is by far the most important player irreplaceable
jamie why did you not add him
ReplyDeleteeveryone knows how good glen johnson is imagine where lfc would be without him
add johnson and i would vote for him a millon times
who is more useless coutinho or aspas
ReplyDeletehow can anyone of sound mind say owen was better than god no more needs to be said
ReplyDeleteA team is only as strong as its weakest link. Mignolet's back-up is arguably of a lower quality than any other positional deputy throughout the squad, therefore I say Mignolet is our "most important player"
ReplyDeletein the same position as the last few years - just above mid-table and behind the European calibre teams...
ReplyDeleteCoutinho is most important for us
ReplyDeleteyou are the biggest muppet ive ever heard of online and thats saying something, do u know anything about football, coutinho is pure class, if he didnt go off in the swansea game we would have won and i believe if he was playing against saints we would not have lost, go u and support that dirty team celtic.
ReplyDeleteI understand where Barnes is coming from, but i would put Mignolet up there with all of them.
ReplyDeleteI came here because I asked Google when Coutinho is coming back from his injury. BBC isn't much interested in him, but they counted down the matches until Suarez came back. I voted Suarez as most important player, but Coutinho (if he rediscovers last season's form) is way up there. He is missed. Without Suarez, we won the first 3 games. Without Coutinho, we won the last two games. Without Suarez AND Coutinho, we lost at home to Southampton. And we were winning at Swansea when Coutinho went off injured. I can't wait to see Suarez and Coutinho both play. Ferguson retired because he saw this coming. He didn't want to finish below Liverpool.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Barnes is far off but with the current squad, its difficult to say who is the most important player because the squad this season is more balanced than previous seasons. I would rate Coutinho, Sturridge and Suarez up there. When there is a problem picking the most important player in the squad, it is a good sign.
ReplyDeleteHow is he too weak or too small? His speed and agility more than make up for his lack of strength. In any case his supreme balance makes him hard to dispossess or he at least draws a foul. He is constantly fouled and is one of the most fouled players in the PL. I agree that he has perhaps been overhyped but he undoubtedly has quality. Looking from a pure statistical point of view he perhaps hasn't had quite the same impact this season however, you'd have to be blind to not notice his contribution to the said. Without him and without Suarez out attack loses so much fluidity. Plain and simple Coutinho is class. Perhaps not out most important player quite yet but not too far off either.
ReplyDeleteToure was my man on that list :), for sakho it's a bit to early, eventho next year he will probably be under the top3 most important... Agree about hendo, I just love this boy chasing the ball 90minutes a day :)
ReplyDeleteCouldn't decide between Sturridge and Toure... Decided to pick Kolo because he's the heart of our defense, from the moment we came our defensive line looked so much more organised and our defensive individual errors disappeared.
ReplyDeleteI guess ... potentially Coutinho is our most important player. We're looking to him as a creative outlet from midfield, he's going to ultimately be the guy through which almost all our attacking football will happen. But that's a still a theory for now, it's not really how things happen. He's got great potential to really make great things for us a club, it's just that we're otherwise getting things done regardless of how he performs. I suppose you could say that if we end up being as good as we can be then Coutinho "will" be the guy at the heart of everything, but at the moment we're not at that level.
ReplyDeleteThey're all equally important. Influential is a different story. Without picking a favourite, I'm sure we'll be even better when Coutinho takes over from Moses again.
ReplyDeletei personally still think it's a too early to give them that tag, but i take your point about how well they are playing. One thing i do wonder is if Barcelona or Bayern come in for Sturridge in 12 months time, might his head be turned were we to have another season outside the European places?
ReplyDeleteIf we play three centre backs do we need to play Lucas? i personally don't so. I'd play Coutinho through the middle picking his passes, which should be easy given the superb movement of Suarez and Coutinho.
ReplyDeleteAlso, players will get injured and our shape will change - nice to have options this year!
I can't vote it's a hard choice. I think Coutinho will be better with Suarez back in the team when he recovers from injury
ReplyDeleteWhen Toure arrived our new keeper also arrived Skrtl's form also improved as did the form of the full or wing backs . A dodgy keeper is like cancer it spreads throught the team
ReplyDeleteCoutinho? POTENTIALLY most important but certainly not the most important so far. That would Sturridge followed closely by Mignolet and then Toure. And unless PC lives up to his potential when he returns...which I fully expect...then he will never be the most important. He will need some time to re-settle so let's have some patience with him.
ReplyDeleteSo far it has been Sturridge - because of his goals. I think over the season Suarez, just because of his skill and workrate, overall contribution, it rubs off on the others - I don't think it's a coincidence that winning margins have increased since he returned. But the important thing is that the team are all (mostly) adding some sort of positive contribution, because as we saw first half last season, 1 important player is not enough.
ReplyDeleteCoutinho hasn't done much season, but he'll have more room to operate, and better passing options now that Suarez is back - I look forward to him coming back.
Top class keeper, top class defense, top class attack, once their recovered - top class (good anyways) flanks, all is needed is to sort out the midfield which can probably be done in the short term by using the available players - subbing off/on Gerrard and/or Lucas so that they can play to their maximum potential for part of the game - not 90 minutes guaranteed.
i vote keeper
ReplyDeleteHe's our most irreplaceable player due to lack of depth in the position.
ReplyDelete