I've been a long time lurker on these forums. I'm a Liverpool fan but have always enjoyed reading these forums as Barca are a club that I, like every football fan admire, and these forums are great with views on football around Europe and South America.
Coutinho is going to be a fantastic player for you. He is an outstanding world class talent who I believe isn't near his peak. He has world class abilities as both a midfielder and attacker. Many flair players are very passive and lack drive. Coutinho is most certainly not one of them. Although he is a quiet lad he is extremely driven on the a football pitch and doesn't hide when things are going tough. If you want him to play a discipline role then he will perform it brilliantly but to truly utilise his genius you must let him express himself. I see him being a world class attacking player playing as the most advanced midfielder for the next few years, where he will win games by moments of genius.
His passing I believe on this forum is criminally underrated. He has every single type of pass in his locker. He will score in Champions League finals for Barcelona. As he ages he will drop deeper into midfield where he will be reinvented as one of the best midfielders in the world who will run games from the start to finish. He has already been running games for Liverpool. For years we have been a club with very little success, but it is a club of big profile with large media attention. I think any player who is the vocal point for Liverpool has the required character to play for Barcelona, with the expectations for trophies.
The whole transfer saga has been disappointing from him though. The fans sing his song every week, but I do not think that he would have done it for any other club but Barca. I don't think it's in Coutinho's character to refuse to play etc. like he has done, but in the strong position that we are in financially, it was probably the only feasible way he could have forced the transfer. We get a great fee for a great player, and will make tremendous profit. I think the panic and some outrage from Liverpool fans is also down to the fact that we have failed time and time again to replace our players like Luis. We Liverpool fans all love Suarez, he didn't strike like Coutinho so will probably always be loved a little more, but some idiots aside most Liverpool fans will eventually reflect and remember the magician as a true genius and grow to love but not adore him again.
It would have been nice for him to finish the season and help us progress as far as possible in the Champions League and place high in the league but I get why he'd want to force it through now. It's annoying how Liverpool always seem on the cusp of something good only to a lose a player. Our signings have been good under Klopp though, and the squad is quite strong now unlike other years. The fans who say he isn't our best player are talking out of their ass. He has genius no other player can and is our best. The best ever Brazilian in the Prem.
