9 Feb 2015

Redknapp: £20m LFC-star can be 'like David Silva', but only if he scores more goals

Liverpool attacker Philippe Coutinho has finally found his form this season, but with only 3 goals in 33 appearances, it's clear that the Brazilian needs to drastically improve his goal return. One goal every 11 games is not a statistic befitting Coutinho's prodigious talent, and ex-Red Jamie Redknapp insists that 10 goals per season is the bare-minimum he should be achieving.

Speaking to Sky Sports over the weekend, Redknapp observed:

"If he wants to step up to the level of players like David Silva and Luka Modric - which he can - then he needs to be scoring 10 per season".

I agree with Redknapp on the 10-goal figure, but Silva and Modric are the wrong examples to back up his point:

* Silva has only ONCE scored 10 goals in a single season, and that was back in 2009/10 season at Valencia.

* The Spaniard has never scored 10+ goals in the Premier League. The highest he's achieved is 8 in the 11/12 season.

* It's the same for Modric, who averages just 2 goals a season over the last 6 years (!)

Modric and Silva are good comparisons to Coutinho, but only in the sense that - like the Brazilian - they both need to do a hell of a lot better on the goalscoring front.

Silva is basically a like-for-like player, but I still don't see how Modric can be compared with Coutinho. The Croatian plays in a totally different position, and his game is based on building from deep, and setting-up the play.

£20m-rated Coutinho plays much higher up the field (usually just off the main striker), and his game is built around goal/chance creation in the final third. Goalscoring is an issue, though, and any player who operates in that role should be scoring 8-10 goals per season.

In my view, in terms of pure talent, Coutinho is already on a par with Silva, but the Spaniard has the edge when it comes to creative contribution. This season, for example, Silva has 12 goals/assists in 26 appearances, compared to 8 goals/assists in 33 for Coutinho.

Silva can get away with scoring fewer goals, though, as he's playing in a league-winning team, and is surrounded by an array of top-class players. If City were languishing near mid-table, the Spaniard would be under more pressure to consistently contribute.

Coutinho suffered a slight knock against Everton on Sunday, but hopefully he'll be available for the Spurs game, which is sure to be incredibly tough.

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41 comments:

  1. I'd rather have Coutinho, purely for the fact that he is considerably younger, and has so much potential to become brilliant.
    I think he is already a quality player, if he can up his creative stats a little bit, he will be such an important player.

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  2. even skill wise silva is better. Coutinho is faster because he's younger.
    And silva has 7 goals so far and he has missed several epl games through injury.

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  3. Really tough one this, as silva is more accomplished at the moment he would probably edge it for me- I remember Rafa wanting him.
    Coutinho could eclipse him in the end though so either would be fine as long as PC continues to improve

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  4. But if we find a better Mac I'll take that instead

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  5. You've lost me. Gary Mac?

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  6. Yea, there is no doubt that Silva is the better player right now. I just feel that Cout could be better than him.
    Plus I just really like him as a player anyway.

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  7. Not being injured itself is an attribute for a player as much as pace
    etc, ask Suarez then ask Wilshere and Aurelio


    So being injured should not count

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  8. Here's my thing. Would having Silva make any difference right now? Even though he's not as good, I'd rather have Coutinho right now and have him develop into something special as our team as a whole starts firing on all cylinders, than have a good Silva decline when the rest of our team is on the up.

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  9. fairplay man.

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  10. I read somewhere (The Guardian? Curse my stupid memory) the other day that Couts has created more chances for team-mates than any other EPL player since he came to Liverpool in Jan 2013. I'm totally ignorant of the exact stats I'm afraid, but I admit that surprised me just a little bit given his occasional lapses in form, but mostly because of the obvious quality of other, comparable EPL players like Silva. We all know he needs to work on his goalscoring, but his primary role is clearly to create opportunities for others and he's been doing that in abundance already, and still only a kid.

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  11. Sell Sterling now before he runs his contract down
    with Origi and Ibe we have ready made replacements,
    invest that 30m to another position.
    Sterling is replaceable.

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  12. Coutinho has suffered from both a lack of a decent striker and the rest of the teams poor form and set up.

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  13. 50 plus years a slave to a bad opinion.

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  14. And Origi is the next big thing right?

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  15. He is the *only* man alive who thinks we should flog Sterling. But at least he's sorted his spelling out.

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  16. How dare you think logically! #CoutinhoOut

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  17. Thank God for that. Now he just needs to sort out his opinion.

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  18. True, that kind of sanity has no place here; only drunken, incoherent, punctuation-less ramblings.

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  19. In other words: my nonsense.

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  20. So lets look at this realistically.


    The least points we will need to have a slight chance of finishing top 4 will be 70? There are 42 points left to get byt with being on 39 we have absolutely no room for error as the most points we can get at this stage is 81 plus the mancs in fourth are 5 points ahead of us.


    With Spurs, City, UTD, Chelsea and Southampton all still to come? Get the napkins out people.

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  21. I think I'll start calling you Sunshine ;-)

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  22. An another thing, since the deafeat to the mancs we have been scoring at 2.25 points per game so if you times that by our remaing 14 mathces you get 31.5 points which will only see us end on 70 points.


    It's sad, so sad, It's a sad, sad situation...

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  23. Oh you mean for wiping away the tears- gotcha

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  24. Lucas out for several weeks

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  25. At least I won't need to do anything of the sort ;-)

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  26. 4 weeks apparently.

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  27. Just imagine. 3 pts vs Everton would've saw us to just 1 win behind Utd... ;(

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  28. So we are on course for the least points we can possibly get top.four but we have to play those other teams to get it done thus taking the points off them. Sounds like it is in our hands. Cheers

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  29. It is fair to say that 2 more losses will be the final nail in the coffin.

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  30. As BR said, people forget that he is only 22. If Coutinho continue developing, I'm sure he will be better than Silva

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  31. It's not over until it's over. The next two league games will give us a real idea.

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  32. You know what I mean ;-)

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  33. Ibe for the rest of this year then Origi next year then Ojo after that.
    In between the last best thing has to be criticised and then sold before fulfilling their potential

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  34. Jamie Redknapp says to be on Silva's level you need to get 10 goals minimum.That's something David Silva has only done ONE time and he's almost 30.Coutinho needs to score more, but Silva isn't the creative midfield goalscoring benchmark that Redknapp suggests he is.

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  35. For sure but unfortunately we cannot afford any slip ups.

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  36. 50+ different names to keep peddling his nonsense under

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  37. You don't seem sad. Seems to me like you're basking in what you perceive to be our future failures this season. Feels like you would rather we were rubbish so you could say I told you so.

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