Daily Mail - 19.08.2019

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LADYMAN

Ian

S

OMETIMES in life

you make a decision

that alters the course

of things irrevocably.

For Philippe Coutinho

that moment came on

January 6, 2018.

His move from Liverpool to

Barcelona seemed sensible

enough. It was a ‘next level’

transfer that appeared to give

the brilliant Brazilian a level of

football and lifestyle superior to

anything on offer on Merseyside.

At Anfield, they did their best

to dissuade him. I remember

being at a Jurgen Klopp press

briefing that week and the

Liverpool manager spoke

passionately about the giant

efforts he had made. In the end,

Coutinho left and it seemed hard

to blame him.

Eighteen months on and

Coutinho looks lost. Unable to

break the hegemony on creative

football guarded so fiercely by

Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez at

the Nou Camp, the 27-year-old

has limited prospects at the club.

Efforts to return to England on

loan have failed and yesterday he

was pictured in Munich, with a

move to Bayern representing the

only option left.

None of this surprises me

greatly. It can happen at clubs

like Barcelona. Messi is

desperately protective of his

turf, even more so as he gets

older. What does surprise

me is that Liverpool

didn’t take the oppor-

tunity to welcome

Coutinho back.

This opinion won’t

sit well with support-

ers of a club that has

gone on to do rather

nicely without Coutinho.

But if you take the emo-

tion out of the subject, a

return to Liverpool makes

irrefutable sense. In sport,

pragmatism trumps emo-

tion more often than not.

A loan offer was put to

Liverpool by Coutinho’s

people last month, just as it

was to Tottenham, Arsenal and

Manchester United. Not surpris-

ingly, Liverpool was the preferred

option but they said no almost

immediately. A decision driven

partly by finance? Possibly, the

numbers were high. By Klopp’s

tactical vision for the season?

Very probably. By hubris? We

would really hope not.

There is an opinion held by

some on Merseyside that

Coutinho would be down the

creative pecking order back at

Anfield these days. I don’t see

that. Players like Mo Salah,

Roberto Firmino and Sadio

Mane have improved in his

absence but Coutinho would

still offer Klopp’s team

something they don’t have.

Those who don’t agree must

have forgotten — conveniently

and perhaps deliberately — just

how good he really is.

An attacking philosophy built

on speed and energy and sheer

overwhelming power, Klopp’s

blueprint is thrillingly effective

in full flow. Clubs like Barcelona

and even English champions

Manchester City have found it

impossible to hold back the

Liverpool tide when the really

big waves start to break.

But Liverpool won 97 points

last season and still did not win

the title. Within their season

there was a spell of games when

the plan did not quite work,

when the energy levels dropped.

Between January 30 and

March 3, Liverpool failed to beat

Leicester, West Ham, Manches-

ter United and Everton. It was a

period that undoubtedly cost

them the title, a spell when

they might have been

helped by the kind

of once-

every-90-

minutes

creativity

that a

player

like

Coutinho

brings.

Going back doesn’t always

work, we know that. But this

would have been a loan. An

expensive loan, but a loan

all the same. As such, the

risk would have been

minimal.

City are unlikely to regress

much this season, not now

that players like Kevin De

Bruyne have returned to

fitness. In the Premier

League, squad depth is

everything. It is almost

impossible to have too many

top players.

Pep Guardiola seems to under-

stand that. Does Klopp? We

would hope so. Equally, we hope

pride hasn’t been allowed to get

in the way of converting the

most obvious open goal of

Liverpool’s early season.

BACK AT LIVERPOOL

COUTINHO BELONGS

GOOD WEEK

Frank is smart

to back Zouma

WHEN Steve Harmison bowled

that notorious first-ball wide to

Justin Langer in Brisbane at the

start of the 2006 Ashes series, the

worst thing captain Andrew

Flintoff did was take him off after

two overs. It sent Harmison a

clear message that even his good

friend just couldn’t trust him.

With this in mind, it was

interesting to see Frank Lampard

stick with Kurt Zouma in Istanbul

last Wednesday.

Zouma, 24, had a horror show as

Chelsea lost at Manchester

United on opening weekend.

Everything that could go wrong

did go wrong. But Lampard sent

Zouma out again in the Super Cup

against Liverpool and the

Frenchman came good. Sound

management, that.

STOKE CITY are in danger

of disappearing off the map

and they could take some good

players with them.

Currently bottom of the

Championship, Stoke and their

well-thought-of manager Nathan

Jones have been moving in the

wrong direction ever since they

slid out of the Premier League

two seasons ago. Goalkeeper

Jack Butland and midfielder Joe

Allen are still there, which seems

unfathomable. Sometimes it pays

to jump off a ship as soon as it

starts to take on water.

VA R

Really? Yes, really. The system is

reducing football to a slow,

lengthy, tedious, deliberate

exercise in geometry and

precision. This is exactly what it

promised to do. To all those who

campaigned for an end to the

brilliant, beautiful chaos and

uncertainty of football:

congratulations. This is for you.

@Ian_Ladyman_DM

BAD WEEK

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN

We thought their best gag of the

year was that regrettable Paddy

Power kit stunt but we were

wrong. No, their decision to

appoint Jan Siewert as coach last

January was a bit of a joke, too.

Turns out that coaching Borussia

Dortmund’s reserves doesn’t

make you the next Jurgen Klopp

[email protected] or David Wagner after all.

Those were the days:

Coutinho in his Liverpool

pomp in 2017 GETTY IMAGES

ZIDANE CALLS TRUCE AS BALE SHINES ON RETURN

GARETH BALE is back in REAL

MADRID coach Zinedine Zidane’s

plans after a summer of hostility

and frustration.

Having tried to force the

Welshman out of the club,

Zidane picked Bale for the first

league match of the season, a

3-1 victory over Celta Vigo.

‘He’s going to stay and we all

have to think of that as a

positive thing,’ Zidane said.

Bale, who saw a lucrative move

to China collapse, was picked

ahead of Lucas Vazquez and set

up the opening goal for Karim

Benzema. He also nearly

scored, forcing a save from

Celta keeper Ruben Blanco.

Real absorbed long spells of

pressure and Luka Modric was

sent off in the 54th minute, but

goals from Toni Kroos and

substitute Vazquez clinched

victory. Usually critical Marca

ran the headline: ‘Bale gives

shine to the old Madrid’ — tacit

approval for a player who is

going nowhere. Eden Hazard

missed the match through injury.

England right back Kieran

Trippier made a dream debut

for ATLETICO MADRID last night,

as his trademark cross set up

the only goal of the game for

ex-Chelsea striker Alvaro

Morata against Getafe. Both

sides played the second half

with 10 men, Atletico’s Renan

Lodi seeing red for two

bookings in two minutes.

Morata also missed a penalty.

BARCELONA lost their first game

of the season 1-0 at Athletic

Bilbao on Friday night thanks to

an incredible overhead kick

from 38-year-old Aritz Aduriz.

In France, Rennes came from

behind to stun reigning

champions PARIS SAINT-

GERMAIN, who were again

without wantaway star Neymar.

Edinson Cavani opened the

scoring but M’Baye Niang

equalised and Romain del

Castillo scored the winner.

Wayne Rooney demanded that

referees give him more

protection after his DC UNITED

were beaten by Vancouver 1-0.

The soon-to-be Derby player-

coach aimed a volley of abuse at

fourth official Pierre-Luc Lauziere

when he was substituted. ‘All I’m

asking for is a bit of protection.

It’d be nice if Howard Webb (in

charge of referees in the MLS)

could come to the training

ground, and let us speak to him

over it,’ Rooney said. ‘I have my

opinions of the referees. It’s not

very good. I feel they need to

improve. That’s my opinion, and

I feel like I’m entitled to my

opinion.’

England’s Jadon Sancho was on

the scoresheet for BORUSSIA

DORTMUND, who swept aside

Augsburg 5-1 as the German

season kicked off.

A fight between fans of rival

Honduran sides Motagua and

Olimpia at the National Stadium

in Tegucigalpa left four people

dead and led to the suspension

of the game.

FOOTBALL

ROUND-UP

Back: Bale on Saturday AFP