Barcelona banned from transfer activity

[Fredo]

His shooting is making him look poorer his shots/shots on target ratio is circa 10%. That in itself is nothing short of abysmal

His main role should be as main creator really. Do you think Iniesta has a high accuracy shooting rate? Coutinho is trying to fill a number of roles which possibly don't suit him. I'd play him in midfield behind 3 forward players. He currently plays in an attacking 3 with the other two also similar players, who look to come deep, which limits the options upfront.

[Fredo]

Yeah Same applied to Gerrard on many occasions,but he still did the business...Inconsistent Phil is unable absolutely nothing,in a poor team yes but lets see what he's made of show us your a special player even if the rest of your team is piss poor at least you step up to the plate.

Gerrard is a different player. You cannot compare them.

[Alex]

Gerrard is a different player. You cannot compare them.

Stop comparing Coutinho to Iniesta then?

[Fredo]

Stop comparing Coutinho to Iniesta then?

They are similar players.

[Bender]

Gerrard is a different player. You cannot compare them.

why not talent is talent..you are basically saying Coutinho is a special player but only if he plays with better players.Couthino needs to shows us he is a top player by showing consistency in every game and being able to produce top performances regardless of how poor the squad is,that's what is called a match winner/special player.

[Alex]

Bender didnt say that Gerrard and Coutinho were similar though. Just that Gerrard didnt need a team around him to perform. Great players dont.

I think this is way off topic now anyway. Barca wont be buying Coutinho on his current performances. Thats all that really matters.

[Fredo]

Ok sorry my bad.

I still think that he will leave for Barca but for way less than his potential, judging by our form this season.

[The_weatherman]

I see one of Eidur Gudjohnsen's boys is there, he has three boys and they are all rather promising, the eldest is playing with the Iceland U-19 I think.

[Irishnev]

You understand that he'll be working with world class players at Barca right? His play will benefit from that.

I always thought that Coutinho would suit Barca and especially in the Iniesta role - one of the midfield three with loads of moment in front of him. He has the same ability as Iniesta in accepting a ball with a man on him and making space with a great first touch or a trick. However, he is nowhere at Iniesta's level in terms of decision making and he tends to drift out of games too easily.

Coutinho is still young and I believe that he has a higher ceiling of potential than Sterling say so in the right environment he will flourish. The other thing is if Neymar stays at Barca and becomes the main man then his relationship with Coutinho will surely be another factor in getting him there.

[vlahka]

Not everyone is a Messi or Ronaldo. You're all doubting Coutinho because hes not scoring goals. Ask yourself why this is. We've got a team who are pretty poor. Their movement is poor. Their danger is weak. Because of this Coutinho gets marked extremely tight very often because the other team has the ability and freedom to do this.

You want to compare something similar, think along the lines of Alonso. He was excellent for the first couple seasons and then the other teams started to mark him heavily. His first two seasons, CL and FA cup. We never ended up getting a good amount of players around him that could distract the opposition players away. We had a couple or so, no different to now. Probably should mention his injuries which would of stilted him some. Anyway point is, with us he was legendary unless he was marked heavily. At Real and Bayern hes a solid core of the team. Coutinho would be no different at Barcelona. That doesnt mean ANY player that moved there would suddenly be amazing.

He's primarily an assist player. Despite having a low season, if we had some proper people in front of him who could actually score and read the game, he would of had a couple assists every game. He's done some amazing passes at times that end up getting fluffed control wise.

Ignoring any poor examples I've made, once Klopp gets in some decent strikers and midfielders to join, I dare say you'll suddenly see him performing far better and you'll be glad he never left to Barca. The other side to this is saying hes not good enough, he goes to barcelona and becomes a legend there. Because thats exactly what would happen. He's a star. A star that fell out of the sky and landed in a pile of ****.

[danperkins]

No doubts Coutinho is hugely talented and is surrounded by fairly average players... but to be fair he hasn't been great either. I agree with Nev that Coutinho is primed to replace Iniesta at Barca but he has a very long way to go to get to Iniesta's level.

[gratziani]

Surely it is the chicken and egg syndrome

Play him with better players and he looks brilliant as he will get more space and time while the opposing players are ****ting themselves trying to mark Suarez or Messi or Neymar.

[Fosterbloke]

I reckon even Charlie Adam would look brilliant in that Barca team.

[The_weatherman]

Anyone think Messi might move this summer? If Barca want to ease their money problems I reckon this summer might be the best time to do it. They have Neymar and Suarez who were brilliant when Messi was injured. Maybe it's time to cash in, Messi goes to City with Pep and Neymar takes over the mantle? I'd rather they kept Messi with Neymar and Suarez, just wondering if this might actually happen?

[gratziani]

Be better for other teams if they split the three up.

Barca with 200 million to spend mind you.

I would love to see Messi in the premier as well taking the piss out of everyone except Stoke on a Tuesday evening in January.