When Philippe Coutinho made the move from Vasco de Gama to Inter, a lot was expected of the then 18 year old. He was even hailed as “the future of Inter” by the club’s chairman, Massimo Moratti. He had an incredible abundance of skill, you don’t need to know anything about football to see that, and expectations were sky high for the scant, adolescent Brazilian. He looked a pure footballer enjoying his craft. His smile was genuine and eyes were bright. Coutinho didn’t quite work out at Inter, but man, he is at Liverpool.
Last year, Coutinho was often the forgotten man amongst Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez’s record breaking partnership, Steven Gerrard’s renaissance, Raheem Sterling’s breakout and Jordan Henderson’s growing influence on the side. And rightly so. He showed his typical moments of brilliance but was too inconsistent.
Now, with much credit to Coutinho himself and the coaching staff, he’s been more consistent. For a while, he wasn’t really a threat at goal. He’d either drag his shots low and wide or hit them without enough venom. So, he took a weakness and turned it to a strength as he’s got three astounding strikes under his belt within the last month. And he’s not done improving yet.
Four years following his initial move to Italy, Coutinho is still just 22. People tend to forget that he’s still another three or four years away from his peak. That’s right on par with this current Liverpool squad. Lucas Leiva, 27 and Adam Lallana, 26, are the only players truly in their prime. It’s easy to argue that much more can come from Lallana in the coming years as well. At 25, Sturridge should be there in a year or two. Centre halves and keepers peak later, so Simon Mignolet, 26 (turns 27 on 6 March), Dejan Lovren, 25, and Mamadou Sakho, 25 aren’t at their height yet. More importantly, the truly exciting and possibly transcendent players such as Coutinho, Lazar Markovic, 21, Emre Can, 21, Sterling, 20, and Jordon Ibe, 19 are years away from their best football.
If Liverpool continue trending upwards and keep hold of these players and of Brendan Rodgers, both of which are compulsory, how high can they soar? Let’s pump the breaks for a second though. Of course, a lot of this is abstract best-case-scenario type stuff. What’ve they done? Finished second and are currently out of the title race and Europe. The FA Cup is the only trophy they can lift this season. However, every year seems to be more promising under Rodgers, bar the transition period at the beginning of this current campaign. Last year, they just may well have won the league with just a little more depth. You know, like not having to call upon Brad Smith in the dying moments of a one goal game at Stamford Bridge whilst chasing a goal. This year, if the one player Rodgers wanted actually arrived instead of going to London, who knows. If Roy Hodgson hadn’t gotten the ball rolling on Sturridge’s injuries, who knows. So, the framework is in place and this team hasn’t peaked yet and probably won’t for a few years.
Moving forward, this young core needs a top class defender, an improvement in net, another box to box midfielder and an additional forward with pace to take the goal scoring pressure off Sturridge and his string bean thighs. If the right recruitments can be brought in and the likes of Coutinho, Sterling, Sturridge stay with Rodgers at the helm, then this team can regularly challenge at the top.
Currently on the back line, Sakho fits into the future. Once upon a time less than 365 days ago, Lovren was a reliable centre back so he’s got to still have it in him and Martin Skrtel still has a few years left at the top. For those who forgot, a defender named Tiago Ilori still exists and is on loan to Bordeaux. He’ll figure in as well. Alberto Moreno will be marauding up and down the left side of the pitch for years to come and his compatriot Javi Manquillo very well may be the long term answer on the other side.
In the midfield, attacking and wing slots are filled up and it looks glorious with the aforementioned Coutinho, Sterling, Lallana, Markovic and Ibe. Through the middle, heir to the armband Henderson will be running around spraying Nivea whilst Can will be destroying and creating next to him. Forget about footballing, that midfield wins any and every premier league male beauty contest.
Up top, Sturridge is the man and will be as long as he stays fit. He’ll need a running mate, someone else with pace and an eye for goal.
Liverpool need to prove they aren’t a selling club and that they’ll be consistently in Europe and challenging in England. Coutinho and Sterling especially cannot leave for any price. Same goes for Sturridge once he inevitably gets back to top form. This is an important time for the club. They overachieved last year, everybody knows that. It was always going to be tough to keep Luis Suarez with Barcelona knocking, because usually when they ask, the answer ends up being yes, no matter how reluctant.
Fenway Sports Group has set a plan in motion and stuck with their business model of mainly buying young players that’ll improve in the squad. If they can consistently be in the Champions League, revenue will flow a bit more freely and bigger names will be more attainable. Once the wallet gets bigger they’ll be ready to be in the same class as Chelsea and Manchester City. Ambitions have to be higher than Arsenal’s and they will be.
This squad has the pieces in place, a philosophy and a young manager who isn’t afraid of anything. They play on the front foot and they’ve got the squad to do just that. It’s not a complete squad just yet, but it’s not far off. And they’ll only get better.
