The Liverpool boss, Brendan Rodgers, believes that Philippe Coutinho, the Brazil international, is a player with the X-factor and he can be the man for the Reds in the upcoming season.
Liverpool appears to be a slightly hampered unit after losing Luis Suarez to the Catalan club Barcelona earlier this summer, but, according to Rodgers, Coutinho can make up for Suarez’s absence.
Coutinho had played in the league regularly in the last season too for Liverpool and had made some game changing contributions, but, like many others, he was also overshadowed by Suarez who had ended up as the top scorer in the tournament.
But, with the Uruguayan not being the part of the club any more, Rodgers would be relying more on Coutinho this time around and the 22-year old playmaker has kicked off the summer promisingly enough to give confidence to his boss.
Rodgers was all praise for Coutinho after the pre season match against Borussia Dortmund the other day.
The Reds manager was quoted as saying, “Philippe is not behind may others in terms of skills, that’s for sure. What a player he is. Today, with the opposing team as good as that, the attitude that he showed was incredible. He is innovative on the pitch and he rarely gets panicky even if he’s in a difficult situation.”
“If you have a look at his first strike today, you would know what this guy can do. There is a big platform waiting for him. He will like to make a mark in the European Cup with everyone watching.”
Coutinho was an extremely surprising exclusion from the Brazilian World Cup squad. People close to him say that after being overlooked, he is fired up from inside and is keen to prove himself to the whole world.
Coutinho has so far made only one appearance for the Brazilian national side i.e. in 2010.
Leeds United recently lost the services of striker Ross McCormack, who joined Fulham in a £ 11 million deal a few weeks ago. As a result, the attack of the club is not as strong as it once was towards the end of last season. So far, the club has made four signings. Head coach David Hockaday has revealed that he will not be stressed into making panic buys since there is still a lot of time left in the transfer window. Leads are reportedly negotiating deals with a couple of players, as they target a return to the Premier League after a long time.
Leeds were expected to be one of the promotion contenders last season, but Brian McDermott failure to get the team anywhere close to the play-offs led to him losing his job. Hockaday will be in charge of the team during pre-season. The club recently returned to action with the pre-season camp that began in Italy. Hockaday has revealed that United have always had great players over the years and the loss of McCormack will not be enough to dampen the spirits of the club ahead of the new campaign. The huge transfer fee received from the sale of the striker will be invested back into the team.
“From my point of view, if we need to replace them we will replace them and we’ll do that as quickly as we can, but we won’t panic and we won’t do anything silly. We might have to show patience in some positions and some things might move quicker than others but it’s one of those things where if there’s a gap to fill we’ll fill it properly and professionally, but if needs patience we’ll show patience,” said the Leeds United coach after returning back from the pre-season camp.
It is understood that former Leeds United coach Gary McAllister is in line to return to the club in a managerial position. The club recently parted ways with manager Brian McDermott after a disappointing end to the campaign. Italian businessman Massimo Cellino, who took over at the club a few months ago, had earlier promised that he would continue to give McDermott enough time to prove himself in the job. However, the Italian, who is widely known for sacking managers often, did not show patience with McDermott and the former Reading manager was gone as soon as the season concluded.
On the club’s official website, Cellino said that he had no doubt in McDermott’s quality, but it was simply not working at Leeds United. Hence, he needed to make the change in order to make the club challengers for a promotion spot next season. Leeds have been struggling in the lower reaches of the English football table for several years, but they are within touching distance of the Premier league. McAllister is one of the Leeds United legends after having won the title with the club in 1992. He was also coach of the team for just under a year in 2008.
“Brian has been very understanding of my wish to implement a new structure. He is a great manager and a great guy. He has been unfortunate to work in such difficult circumstances,” said Cellino. “Massimo wants to bring a new energy to the club so that we can return to where we belong as a healthy football club,” said McDermott. McAllister, though, has been struggling as a manager in recent years and was recently relieved of his duties at non-league Histon. He has been out of work since December, but he has a lot of knowledge about the club.