A lot has been said about Philippe Coutinho and his record transfer fee of £142 million from Liverpool to Barcelona in January 2018. Barcelona has faced a lot of criticism over the past year over this deal. People were outraged over the high price that Barcelona paid for Coutinho viewing him as an extremely overrated player. People viewed this deal as a desperate attempt by Barcelona to fill the space that was created by Neymar when he left the club for PSG in August 2017. But are these condemnation and renunciation by the people hold any ground?
Let's take a look at how Coutinho's performance in Barcelona has been so far.
Barcelona is a team famous for it's intricate and unique playing style. Any newbie takes time adjusting to that style of play. In the beginning, Coutinho started off slow; playing only as substitute. Coutinho was actually brought in to replace the super star Andrés Iniesta. The experience and skills acquired by Iniesta over the years during his time in Barcelona can not be replaced easily. But gradually Coutinho claimed his spot on the main team. As a promising talent, his first season started of well enough. But instead of improving upon his performance from last season; what we have seen is a pretty sub par performance so far. Coutinho is constantly being put in the shadows by the performance of his teammate Ousmane Dembele; who albeit many flaws delivers a good display of football.
What does the future hold for Coutinho? Has his time in Barcelona come to an end? Would he be able to maintain his spot on the team and prove an able successor to Iniesta?
Only time will tell.
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