Is Coutinho really the player to bring back tiki-taka based midfield dominance though? I could be completely wrong here, but he doesn't necessarily strike me as the player to first and foremost keep possession under heavy pressure and work his ass off applying pressure when we're not on the ball. Really exciting player, no doubt, but the times I've seen him (perhaps not entirely enough) he's often looked to surge forward with the ball at his feet and either go for the key pass or shot from a distance.
Oh, my point was that we will play more like Barca mostly because Neymar won't be here.
In my opinion, he was one of the biggest reasons for our counterattacking and chaotic football lately.
A few times last season, whenever he didn't play, we played more like Barca.
So, the same crappy midfiled, and Arda/Paco on the left, but we played more possession based and kept the ball longer. (Real Madrid at Bernabeu 2:3, for example).
I have wrote a lot of times that Neymar, from 30 times when he touches the ball per match, ends an action on average in 20 actions by himself.
He will either try a solo action and shot. Or dribble and lose the ball. Or dribble and get fouled. Or dribble, hog the ball and asked to be fouled. Or dribble and earn "only" a throw in etc.
More or less, in 2/3 of actions, when Neymar gets the ball, NO ONE of his teammates will get the ball back.
Now, when you only remove Neymar from maths, and place Arda, Pedro, and not to mention Dembele on his position, you are immidiately getting a good old Barca.
Less dribbles, less 1 vs 1, less actions when LW goes deep to get the ball and then just dribbles past 4 till death.
So, it is not about Coutinho and Dembele (even though they are awesome).
Imo, remove Neymar and put ANY decent winger, and we will play more like Barca.
Anyway, we will find out very soon whether my estimation was good or crazy.
