Philippe Coutinho has been one of the good signings for Liverpool, as the Brazilian has performed well above expectations since his £ 8 million move from Inter Milan. His signing was viewed as a gamble by the club, who had previously failed with big-money moves like Andy Carroll. Coutinho has more than defied expectations by becoming a first-team regular in the Premier league, which is regarded as hard league for the Brazilians because of the physical nature. Coutinho has been able to settle comfortably partly due to the presence of his international counterparts like Lucas.
Brendan Rodgers says that Coutinho has been excellent for Liverpool, but he expects more from the youngster in the coming years. He has compared him with former Tottenham midfielder Luka Modric, who is currently playing for Real Madrid. The Croatian midfielder did not have the physicality required to play in the English Premier league, but he more than adapted well and proved to be a major reason behind Tottenham’s upward surge in the last few years.
Modric then sealed a £ 35 million move to Madrid and he is starting to become a key player there as well. Rodgers has said that Modric scored 13 goals in his first season at Tottenham and he sees no reason why Coutinho cannot replicate it.
“I look at Coutinho as a Modric type. And when you look at Modric, then over four years at Tottenham he got 13 league goals but his influence was massive. He will naturally get more goals but he is a wonderful player for us. He is a key who opens up many things in a game. There’s no doubt he will want to improve it, but I don’t want to put pressure on to do that. They know what their job is,” said Rodgers.
