7 - Philippe Coutinho - V1

serghei

Senior Member
As much skill and quality as this guy has he really needs to improve his positional discipline and awareness on the pitch massively. When he plays in the place of Iniesta he needs to realize he is a LM not a LW. Many times last night he pushed up far too high and it sometimes looked like we were playing with a front 4.

Here's an example from last night just before we scored the 6th goal:
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You could chalk his positioning down to the fact we had a huge lead and it really didn't matter anymore, but there is no excuse to be that high up on the pitch especially when the ball hasn't crossed half way line yet. His job is to break down the opponent's midfield with cutting passes/dribbles through the lines of defense and get the balls to our forwards in space, not to push up to the point where he could essentially be considered a 4th forward. He needs to tuck into the midfield like I have illustrated providing the CBs with a passing option and allowing Alba to push a little higher up and wider to give us width and overlap creating attacking combinations on the left since Suarez plays centrally. His positioning was also one of the biggest reasons why Girona were able to break on the counter so easily, when he's caught up in attack we lose our structure and numbers in the midfield allowing us to be overrun.

I hope this part of his game massively improves over time or otherwise we cannot play him in the midfield against the bigger sides.

Actually, he doesn't have to occupy the space that can be claimed by the CB that is on the ball there. Why go in that space if Vermaelen can push up himself, not being pressured? And if Vermaelen claims forward space on his own, then he has Coutinho or Alba to pass to once the player that is marking Alba there makes a move to stop him.

On form Pique here claims the space and makes a Girona player leave his marker to stop him (either having Alba, Coutinho or Paulinho as a good passing option, depending on which opponent moves to stop him). Not to mention that with a low risk pass, he can engage Rakitic who is completely free, standing in space on the far end.

In this instance, Vermaelen needs to go up with the ball, because he is not pressed at all. You would have a case if Vermaelen is pressured. Then, yes, Coutinho needs to provide a passing option fast. But in this instance, Vermaelen is in a good position to drive forward and Coutinho should stay in a more advanced position. Once Vermaelen makes 2-3 steps forward, he can access Coutinho there in a more advanced (and more dangerous) position. Girona's setup here is bad as it's been in the whole 2nd half.

Very good point. He is leaving way too much pressure now on defense to build up something and we know how that's going to go against bigger sides, like Madrid etc. We need him to do the build up.

That's not how it works. You adjust the movement and the tactics to how the opponent is or is not pressing you. If the opponent is not pressing your defenders, they have to push up util someone from the other team leaves the defensive block to pressure him.
 
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Actually, he doesn't have to occupy the space that can be claimed by the CB that is on the ball there. Why go in that space if Vermaelen can push up himself, not being pressured? And if Vermaelen claims forward space on his own, then he has Coutinho or Alba to pass to once the player that is marking Alba there makes a move to stop him.

On form Pique here claims the space and makes a Girona player leave his marker to stop him (either having Alba, Coutinho or Paulinho as a good passing option, depending on which opponent moves to stop him). Not to mention that with a low risk pass, he can engage Rakitic who is completely free, standing in space on the far end.

In this instance, Vermaelen needs to go up with the ball, because he is not pressed at all. You would have a case if Vermaelen is pressured. Then, yes, Coutinho needs to provide a passing option fast. But in this instance, Vermaelen is in a good position to drive forward and Coutinho should stay in a more advanced position. Once Vermaelen makes 2-3 steps forward, he can access Coutinho there in a more advanced (and more dangerous) position. Girona's setup here is bad as it's been in the whole 2nd half.



That's not how it works. You adjust the movement and the tactics to how the opponent is or is not pressing you. If the opponent is not pressing your defenders, they have to push up util someone from the other team leaves the defensive block to pressure him.

I don't like the CBs pushing up too much as if we lose the ball it leaves too much space in behind to exploit. That's what happened in the match against Alaves a couple weeks ago. Our defensive line played way too high up allowing Alaves to easily counter us. If Iniesta was playing he would be in the space I marked with the arrow on the picture, not too deep. but still in the midfield. Do you really want Vermaelen to push up that high? He might not have been being pressed at that very moment but all it takes is one mistake or one quick wave of pressure to leave us exposed.

If Coutinho wants to play in the midfield, he actually has to stick to the midfield not roam to the wing as he pleases, we already have Messi messing up our structure as it is with a free role, everyone else needs to stick to their general positions.
 

PhilS

Active member
Coutinho is a much more enterprising midfielder than Iniesta or Xavi, he will be more involved in goal scoring than they ever were. Not better, different. Thank goodness we now have a midfielder who's willing to shoot! This will open it up for the big guns up front. His adaptation so far is excellent, this is a hard team to come into, for anyone. I'm really looking forward to a different style of midfield play from him that anything we have ever seen on this team before. I just loved that Brazil-Argentina-Uruguay cono sur goal, that was Barca football at it's very best.
 

behindbrowneyes

Well-known member
His goal was fine as fuck. Kind of funny how he ran "away" from the goal, upturned and curved the ball into the net. No one in that team bar Messi could do this in that way. Had some nice dribblings with very tight ball control and some awesome one-twos with Suárez and Messi too. It was the right choice to go after him instead of Eriksen. Never had a doubt about it though.
 

henias

New member
A very livey and vibrant attacker who can provide us with various attacking outlets and creativity. One area of improvement would be try to control the midfield at times and not attack all the time. Against more tactically defensive teams he would have serious trouble if he keeps rushing forward.

But still really like his pace and control on the counter. And longshots. Just need to improve on midfield play and he'll be good.
 

Jombi

New member
Coutinho is a much more enterprising midfielder than Iniesta or Xavi, he will be more involved in goal scoring than they ever were. Not better, different. Thank goodness we now have a midfielder who's willing to shoot! This will open it up for the big guns up front. His adaptation so far is excellent, this is a hard team to come into, for anyone. I'm really looking forward to a different style of midfield play from him that anything we have ever seen on this team before. I just loved that Brazil-Argentina-Uruguay cono sur goal, that was Barca football at it's very best.

He has to play with 3 other midfielders. He cant venture forward, shoot and be undisciplined when playing in Iniesta or Xavi's role.
 

JamDav1982

Senior Member
He played as an attacking mid on the left yesterday of course he was not going to try and play like a CM.

There is no point in comparing that to him playing in midfield.
 

Truthist

New member
Seeing him yesterday shows why it's pointless sticking him on the right.

I still think our midfield is unbalanced and we can end up looking like we are playing 4-2-4 which is a recipe for disaster.

Valverde needs to find the right balance but we need to keep Coutinho and Dembele in the side.
 

behindbrowneyes

Well-known member
Yesterday it looked more like a 4-2-3-1 (2-4-3-1 when they had the ball). Maybe it was a tactical instruction by Valverde to play more like an attacking winger. Girona played with a very high backline in the away-game and maybe he expected them to do the same in Camp Nou.

Anyway, I truly believe Cou can become more important to us than Neymar was.
 

jamrock

Senior Member
Guess we just need to ride this System out for the rest of the season and give him all these months in training to become more or a Midfield.
 

Joan

Well-known member
He's a class and experienced player, I doubt he needs much more learning to do.

We were leading, playing 'friendly', not really focused on defending, having Coutinho on the flank was very important attacking-wise.

Not a match to draw conclusions from.
 

Nothanks

New member
considering messi scored a free kick goal and nearly scored another just in one game, i doubt he's giving them up any time soon.
 

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