Coutinho shines again after his return to England! Why didn’t it work out for him at Barcelona and why does the Premier League suit him so well?

Philippe Coutinho belongs in the Premier League. After his two performances for Aston Villa, we can easily say that. Why is it that a player of his quality failed at Barcelona and shines in England?

Coutinho struggled at Barcelona. He started 16 games in the autumn and scored only two goals, his performances were very poor. His entire engagement in Spain was in the same vein, even a fairly successful loan spell at Bayern Munich didn’t kick him off on the right note.

So no one knew in what condition he would come to Aston Villa. After all, the last time he played in the Premier League, he was reigning supreme in a Liverpool jersey, one of the best players in the entire league, racking up goals and assists, and the fans loved him. Only that was until 2017, as of January 2018, the Brazilian chic still hasn’t found his lost form.

It just looks like he picked it up again in England, where he left it. He made his debut for Aston Villa against Manchester United, coming on to the pitch in a 0-2 draw and signing for the 2-2 draw with a goal. He then helped to an important win at Everton and his gala performance came on Wednesday night.

The Villains drew 3: 3 with Leeds and the 29-year-old Brazilian signed for all the goals. He scored the first one himself and set up the other two.

How did he suddenly shine again? In La Liga, he has the same problem as Eden Hazard.

Both players need space, they are perfectly suited to the Premier League style of play, where the game is up and down, teams rely heavily on breakout situations and offensive players have plenty of room to invent.

In La Liga, they play a completely different kind of football. The players are much more technical, they rarely lose the ball unnecessarily, you don’t see many kicks, and they rely on ball possession. But the game doesn’t have as much momentum, it’s not played with as much intensity as in the Premier League.

You can see it most in the games of Real Madrid, Barcelona or Sevilla. The favourites hold the ball and the weaker opponents form a deep block, waiting to see what they can do. So when Coutinho or Hazard get the ball on the left wing, they often have two or three players on them and virtually no space to dribble.

But in an Aston Villa jersey, Coutinho has a huge amount of freedom. He runs from the wing into the middle, which suits him best, an attribute virtually non-existent in Barcelona’s play. Therefore, the open style of the Premier League suits him much more.

Aston Villa have a €40 million option on him and if he continues to perform like this, they will probably exercise it.

Source: Livesport