7 - Philippe Coutinho - V1

[Barcaman]

There is only one coach who can find a tactic for both Dembele, Suarez, Messi, Coutinho and Arthur together:

Let's hope that Barto will hire him before some other club snatches him.

4 of them can play together easily. Coutinho could play as attacking midfielder as well (look at De Bruyne) if we had a good manager. Maybe not against best of the best but 90% of time - no problem.

 

[DonAndres]

I would say under the current circumstances we could use him similar to how RM used Isco in rotation in years past, but EV is not practical with substitutes at all.

I think we could win pretty much any games with Coutinho/Vidal at CM except maybe a few bad matchups. And that can be rotated with Rakitic-Arthur. Or any iteration of those. The thing is, we NEVER see that kind of variation. It's always a fixed starting lineup or some convoluted 4-4-2 as the alternative.

This squad with Messi in some of his best ever form should be primed to win a CL. PSG/Juve/City are all very beatable, even Liverpool who I see as our worst matchup. We just need to use all of our firepower effectively. Vidal has to start and hopefully not get injured. The difference made between 17/18 level football and right now is Vidal's incredible energy level. We can outpass and outbattle any midfield with him on our side, he really is one of the key missing pieces we needed short term.

The only thing that's been holding us back is ourselves with the managerial decisions.

 

[DonAK]

and as usual EV is responsable
Who are we talking about? of a capricious child who needs his mommy and his pacifier ?

A kick in the ass worth 160mio !!!! this he needs, nothing else!
He has to move his ass and deliver, otherwise he can fuck off.

He has delivered until recently when he got injured and his form fell of a cliff. Obviously it's not all Valverde, but EV is not the best person to actually create a system for such players. This is the guy who subbed in Gomes in a crucial game because he was the most like for like replacement at that time, as it is with all his subs and player selections in general.

And there's been a lot of players that never managed to showcase their true potential under certain managers. It shouldn't be a difficult concept to understand, but I suppose posting something with a dozen ??? or !!!! and telling someone to perform or fuck off is such a great argument or conducive to a discussion that nothing more need to be said

De Bruyne was once regarded as a CAM or LM/RM that was unable to play as a CM, but a CM he became and one helluva one too. Coutinho won't be a CM, but can play as an AM in this team with the right midfield setup with good enough defensive cover behind him.

 

[xXKonan]

Valverde used Lucho's old XI as a base and just filled the gaps with the departure of Neymar and eventually Iniesta and added some stability in the defense and that's pretty much the gist of it.

It's apparent long ago that Valverde doesn't really fully understand what he has and how to get the best out of said players. His style of football perfect for players that may not have the most talent but have really great worth ethic+a couple of players that can make the difference up front and help create a sound solid and hard working system that can be hard to break down like at Bilbao.

The squad we have now is a lot more complex than what he's used to. Players that are far better than what he has ever had in his entire coaching career. And right now I don't think he has the ability to get the most out of certain talented players we have.

 

[khaled_a_d]

But Coutinho, we don't have any creative midfielder in the team. Nobody to create from deep. Messi dropping deep is a an awful tactic, always has been. The ones saying Messi could do the job of Iniesta, or Xavi don't know anything about football imo. Coutinho is much more likely to succeeed as an attacking midfielder than Messi is.

They weren't different at all, come on now.
Ibra badly failed to adapt to play RW and team failed to accommodate both in the middle
Cesc never failed because we had other players, he failed because he was never a good fit.
Messi already occupy the space of AM, Dembele already occupy the space for LW. Coutinho can't occupy same space at same time.

There is only one coach who can find a tactic for both Dembele, Suarez, Messi, Coutinho and Arthur together:

Let's hope that Barto will hire him before some other club snatches him.

He isn't going to play Vidal with them, pass

 

[Messigician]

[MENTION=11668]khaled_a_d[/MENTION], those points you made there are all true, and 75% the reason why Valverde is a bad fit for us. What he did in his year and a half is pure patchwork. Sacrificed our style of playing in order to hide tactical deficiencies in the team, that we all hoped would have been fixed by great management. What we got is a Mourinho like figure who simply made the team play more defensive in the hope we'd leak fewer goals. And even that is not working at the moment.

Instead of saying we can't play with an AM because we have this issue and this issue, and this issue, maybe we should start working on those issues so that we can use an AM like we've used plenty of times in the past under different managers.

Valverde is like the plummer you call to partially solve a leaking at some pipe with some tape and some glue. He won't do a durable job, but the leaking would be temporary stopped until it breaks again and you call someone who's a pro to replace it.

It's not working? Check stats since Vidal became a starter... defence without Umtiti is immense

 

[kattanib]

They weren't different at all, come on now.
Ibra badly failed to adapt to play RW and team failed to accommodate both in the middle
Cesc never failed because we had other players, he failed because he was never a good fit.
Messi already occupy the space of AM, Dembele already occupy the space for LW. Coutinho can't occupy same space at same time.



He isn't going to play Vidal with them, pass

If my memory isn’t totally rusty, I remember Guily Etoo Ronaldinho and Deco all playing at once. Why can’t we do that all over again? Arthur and Busquets can be our holding midfielders and Messi can decide whether he wants to be a CAM or a RW and the other players will adapt accordingly

 

[khaled_a_d]

If my memory isn’t totally rusty, I remember Guily Etoo Ronaldinho and Deco all playing at once. Why can’t we do that all over again? Arthur and Busquets can be our holding midfielders and Messi can decide whether he wants to be a CAM or a RW and the other players will adapt accordingly

They aren't similar at all.
Eto tracked back and pressed more than Suarez (current Suarez)
Giuly tracked back way more than Dembele
Ronaldinho tracked back way more than current Messi
And Deco was actually a CM under Rijkaard, played with way better positional awareness and was way stronger defensively than Coutinho.
Deco was more comparable to Rakitic when he joined, Raki was also AM before coming here and both played more conservative in Barca. (though Deco was more talented attacking wise)

 

[hulinat]

Now hes a Barca flop lol.

 

[Ronaldinhobarca10]

Why not a 4-2-3-1 ?

Suarez
Coutinho Messi Dembele
Raktitic Vidal

 

[Respekt_III]

Now hes a Barca flop lol.

Not yet, but he's heading there if he doesn't improve.

Why not a 4-2-3-1 ?

Suarez
Coutinho Messi Dembele
Raktitic Vidal

That's suicidal/we'd get slaughtered on counters.
Entire left side is slow except Alba who usually pushes up high. Unless you want to do what pep does and limit overlapping runs from the fullback relying on the LW to provide the width... which is pointless because Coutinho doesn't have the pace or stamina for that.
The middle would also be easily exposed because Messi Doesn't have the legs to help cover in defence.
and so on...

I'd rather play Malcolm than Coutinho in that a 4231 regardless. Coutinho ccan take Messi's place when required.

 

[ini4ever]

Some people not long time ago, Dembele fuck off!
and now Coutinho fuck off!
yes lets fuck all our players off right away why not

 

[George_Costanza]

Some people not long time ago, Dembele fuck off!
and now Coutinho fuck off!
yes lets fuck all our players off right away why not

Would you swap Coutinho for Mbappe?

 

[BusiTheKing]

Why not a 4-2-3-1 ?

Suarez
Coutinho Messi Dembele
Raktitic Vidal

Valverde's iteration of this is basically the 4-4-2 we've already seen, where Messi is a false 10. What I would like to see is Coutinho as a regular 10, Dembele on the left, and Messi on the right. We could also just call it a 4-3-3 with Coutinho as the third midfielder. The important point is that Coutinho needs to be in a position where he has players ahead of him.

 

[Ronaldinhobarca10]

Valverde's iteration of this is basically the 4-4-2 we've already seen, where Messi is a false 10. What I would like to see is Coutinho as a regular 10, Dembele on the left, and Messi on the right. We could also just call it a 4-3-3 with Coutinho as the third midfielder. The important point is that Coutinho needs to be in a position where he has players ahead of him.

Dont think Messi wants to play RW. His favourite position is in the middle.