Philippe Coutinhos Barcelona career did not really go as planned. In fact, not many would have guessed that it would end in ashes before it had even properly started. Just a year and a half after he joined the Catalan giant as their most expensive purchase in the history of the club, the little Brazilian magician will be heading out the exit door.
But despite his bad spell in Catalunya, Coutinho is by no means a bad player. As a matter of fact, he is still very much among the best of them but he does require a certain system to be able to showcase his true abilities. This tactical analysis scout report will aim to provide you with the Brazilian’s player profile through analysis of various tactics and statistics and determine just what kind of a player he actually is.
Player overview
Philippe Coutinho is a 26-year-old Brazilian that is effectively a blend between a midfielder and a forward. His best-suited position is that of a number 10 but during his spell at Barcelona, he was mostly played as a left-winger.
Despite being extremely technically gifted and fantastic on the ball, Coutinho is not blessed with pace nor strength to be a capable wide man. Instead, he has the vision and the awareness to roam the final third, linking up with his teammates and shooting from range.
His passing abilities are also really good, as are his dribbling skills. As a whole, he is a wonderful player but one that needs the team to be tailored according to him and a clear system to thrive in. This tactical analysis will also try to shed some light on his past Barcelona troubles and use analysis to dissect Coutinho’s traits in more detail.
Positioning and technical prowess
Coutinho’s arguably greatest strength is his exceptional technical ability on the ball. The Brazilian can be characterised as really comfortable with the ball at his feet and possesses a great passing range as well as incredible dribbling capabilities.
This means that he is mostly best utilised as the team’s creator and distributor who attacks the final third from a deeper position with either deadly passing or by conquering space with his runs and dribbles.
Notice below how that tended to look like at Barcelona. Coutinho drops just slightly outside of the final third in order to give himself more space and time on the ball. Once he recognises a teammate’s run, he can unleash a precise long ball over the top and into the free pocket of space up front.
This used to be somewhat of a trademark move for the Brazilian – create space for himself and then distribute deadly passes that often break the lines. And despite his numbers actually plummeting a bit in his two seasons at Barcelona, he still averaged 1.7 through balls per game in 2018/19 and across all competitions, with 37.5% accuracy.
He also maintained 89.7% overall passing accuracy with 6.65 passes into the final third and 3.02 into the box respectively. This means that regardless of a different role at Barça, he managed to showcase some of his biggest traits.
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