Philippe Coutinho is receiving praise and hype around the world. The Liverpool star is enjoying a good period of his career to date, and has managed to push Chelsea’s Willian out of the national team.
There’s been many articles in Brazil about the change, none of which, that we’ve seen anyway, have been suggesting it’s the wrong decision. The 24 year old Liverpool player is entering a stage of his career where more is expected, and more often.
Brazil are set to face Venezuela without Neymar, and that brings Willian back into the squad and pushes Coutinho over to replace the Barcelona player. Venezuela’s Wilker Angel is quoted as saying: “Although Neymar is the generator of the game, Coutinho and Willian are as good as him.”
That may be stretching it, but it shows the respect Coutinho is now receiving in South American football.
Marca point out that whilst Coutinho has been involved with the Brazil national team for a long time, it’s always been in the shadow of Neymar. However, they state that he’s grown by playing in different positions and at Liverpool has added ‘nuances’ to his game which have resulted in an all-round improvement.
Those improvements have seen Coutinho provide a more ‘consistent and sustained impact’, but Marca say he can now go ‘one step further’ and become Brazil’s standout star against Venezuela.
No pressure, then.
