Klopp, mate, made me blind for a few seconds with that one.
Philippe Coutinho Barcelona Player
- Thread starter Damien
- Start date
It’s funny that with every big money transfer now something inside me dies a little. I’m getting too old.
Agreed but sounds as though he is on about him leaving in January. Hence him mentioning the world cup.
Why are we never able to identify players ready to make the step up like Coutinho when he went to Pool? They did it with Suarez too and now Salah. The only one close to that is Martial but he's not hit rose types of heights... Yet.
Our scouting really does seem poor. The only real area where we've seen actual scouting is with Bailly and Lindelof. The rest of our signings for the most part have been players who anyone could tell you about pretty much.
Our scouting really does seem poor. The only real area where we've seen actual scouting is with Bailly and Lindelof. The rest of our signings for the most part have been players who anyone could tell you about pretty much.
If we fix this problem we will have solved most of our issues.
I mean anyone could have told you about Suarez and salah, especially Salah. Coutinho played for inter too, right? Not exactly world class scouting
Has to be said, in the period of countinho and Salah, and Suarez united have still been more successful than pool, so gotta be doing something right.
And Yet we’re still doing better than them.
And so we should when we're buying strikers for £75m and midfielders for world record fees. My point is only about spotting talent. Nothing else.
You've answered your own question...we win things because we invest in the squad and finding the next big talent is not our model. We are the team that buys Coutinho or Suarez type players.
We promote from the academy, instead of buying lots of young talent, because promoting from the academy is a long standing tradition.
Finding hidden gems doesn't make sense; because we are not Atletcio Madrid or Dortmund, we are like Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid. We are the biggest club in the league and have lots of money.
They’ve literally just spent 75m on a centre back....
You’ve hit the nail on the head.
Only Ronaldo left us. The rest of them were happy to see out their playing careers at United. Rooney, Van Persie, Giggs, Scholes, Keane, Vidic, Evra, De Gea... safe to say all of those guys could have left for Madrid or Barca if they wanted to. But they stayed put cause they knew being at Manchester United was just as big as being at Real Madrid or Barcelona. The ones that did end up leaving were forced out of the club. Tevez, Ruud and Beckham have gone on record saying that they never wanted to leave United.
On the flip side of things, Suarez is buying a house for Coutinho to save him from his Merseyside nightmare
He’s been in that position. He knows how it feels.What are you talking about? Bayern, Barca, and Madrid did also buy lots of talent and try to find hidden gems.
The only question is whether he has the passing quality to play the role iniesta. I've always seen him as a more Hollywood footballer with nowhere near the same vision and playmaking qualifies.
Either way he's going to be a big hit at Barcelona simply due to the amount of natural talent he has on the ball. In Messi, Dembele and Coutinho Barcelona have some insane dribbling ability.
Either way he's going to be a big hit at Barcelona simply due to the amount of natural talent he has on the ball. In Messi, Dembele and Coutinho Barcelona have some insane dribbling ability.
Finding hidden gems is not their primary strategy and that's my point. The pressure to win means that players do not have time to develop; and so you can only have 1 or two players that are not ready for the top level yet.
Coutinho when he came to Liverpool was not good, and he didn't come good until a few seasons in. That would not be acceptable of a player at a top club, and he would be benched for better players and his development would stall.
There is a reason why Spurs have many players that have developed into good players; because they were given the game time to develop. Most of the players in that Spurs team would flop at United if they came early; because they were not at the top level straight away.
Most hidden gems we buy are at the top of young players, Rooney, Ronaldo, Martial were all good players from a young age. They were ready for a top club by the time they hit 21. All 3 of these were also very expensive for young players.
Exactly this, at Spurs the hope is for top four, the expectations are much lower. Spurs are a smaller club, that is no slight just fact. We are expected to be competing at the very top, winning the CL, expected top 4 finish challenging for the title.
This doesnt give much of a window to develop young players learning their trade. Young players will be inconsistent, they will make mistakes, that is the very definition of learning. People bang on about how Spurs or Liverpool are 'unearthing gems', not at all, they are merely giving their young talented players a platform to develop their game and grow into good players/superstars. Because the expectation is lower they have this opportunity as a club.
That is not an option when the expectation is we compete for the title and CL every year, how often does a player will come through the youth ranks and at 20 be ready to play in a United team challenging for the title and CL? Even someone as talented as Pogba moved on for game time at Juventus to grow and develop his game.
These players will eventually move on to the big clubs if they develop into superstars, Coutinho now and before him Bale.
And Barcelona walks the league is a negative for Coutinho in Mr Thompson's opinion... Oh wait Y N W A.He could have played at the highest level with Liverpool unlike with Barcelona..
Same for me, the whole thing stinks tbh. Football will explode in the future.
Yes, literally just now
Lovely message from Phil there.... fantastic player for us, and rightfully deserves his place at Barcelona.
Onwards and upwards lad. YAWN.
In the meantime, get a new goalkeeper and I will actually think we will have improved then.
Onwards and upwards lad. YAWN.
In the meantime, get a new goalkeeper and I will actually think we will have improved then.
Nah. Every season, we usually bought one or two stars or ready made players. The rest are just like other clubs, decent or potential players (bought in with modest fee) that hopefully become these "hidden gems". The difference is, our buys have been mostly unsuccessful
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Coutinho was a gamble and Inter didn’t believe in him enough. A bit of a Pogba to Juve scenario.
Salah was one of the best wingers in the Serie A (although not this good) and a CL player since his Basel days. Just like De Bruyne, Cuadrado etc Chelsea didn’t give him enough chances.
There are plenty of good players in other leagues who might be able to take the step up. Bailly, Lindelöf, Darmian, Herrera, Mkhitaryan etc were similar purchases - just not quite as successful (yet).
When you consider how the market is going in terms of prices it will be a good idea for even the richest clubs to have a good eye for spotting players.
I dont know about the board and the manager but among United fans there is this new and strange tendency to trash any young player linked with the club. Look in the transfer threads.
Fact is, majority of those U-21 are never 100% ready, except the generational talents. But the fans dont accept this. A huge number of them are very negative in the transfer threads, they only see the weakness in the young prospects and ignore the potential. And this is a problem because, again, except the generational talents, even the wc players tend to pick in the middle of their 20s.
Most of our hidden gems are unsuccessful for the exact reasons I've stated. There is a higher level of play expected and less time to get to that level at a top club.
Sometimes it takes a player 2-3 season worth of games performing as mid table standard to develop into a top player. And young players won't get that game time here and so will not develop.
This is why top teams focus on promoting from the academy; because they have loyalty with the club and will be patient. This is why the best talents come from feeder clubs; because they give young players game time and sell them to keep the club in profit.
How has he done so far?
Already looks like he was born to play for Barcelona but appears Valverde is experimenting with where to play him
Where does he play?
He hasn't had a single set position so far, been played out wide left, right & even central
HaHa I know what you mean, I remember the first Million pound player, seemed crazy at the time, Trevor was a good player, but not the best of that era ( 1979 )
He is as good as De Bruyne and Pogba. Now that he plays for a team worthy of his talent, he will prove it.
Ah, the well-planned £145m spend player walks into a team well set to receive him.....but he doesn't yet have a set position because the manager is experimenting where to play him.
He was born to clean the shit off Messi's arse.
No he isn't, don't be ridiculous. He has loads of talent but he's never shown the form De Bruyne has shown this season or Pogba at his best.
He was better at Pool than Pogba has been for us. Not as good as KDB though.
Coutinho scored 12 goals and assisted 9 in the first half this season. That’s an involvement of 21 goals in 23. Those are world class numbers for an attacking midfielder.
He has all the tools to be a world class player. He’s a great dribbler, brilliant passer, had a great football brain, and an incredible long shot.
You can quote this if you want: in 12 months from now, Coutinho will be in the conversation about the best midfielders in the world.
Ooh, treading a fine line there sir. That's a bannable offence at Redcafe. Or least hangable if they're feeling a bit lenient. Just smile and keep nodding about the sun shining out of Pogba's arse.
I think Pogba is the more talented player of the two but he hasn't shown it enough for us, only in patches, whereas Coutinho for the last 18 months has generally been at the top of his game for Pool and delivered.Ooh, treading a fine line there sir. That's a bannable offence at Redcafe. Or least hangable if they're feeling a bit lenient. Just smile and keep nodding about the sun shining out of Pogba's arse.
You obviously have not seen some recent threads in this forum.Ooh, treading a fine line there sir. That's a bannable offence at Redcafe. Or least hangable if they're feeling a bit lenient. Just smile and keep nodding about the sun shining out of Pogba's arse.
Imagine being Coutinho at this point
Imagine being Coutinho at this point
What? With a guaranteed La Liga medal, playing for Barcelona alongside one of the greatest footballers of all time? He'll sleep I'd imagine.
There still be hope for (near future): he can still end up with a title while L'pool has every chance to end up trophylessImagine being Coutinho at this point