It’s a tricky one, this. Given how vital Coutinho is to our attacking play, to advocate leaving him out of the side, especially in such a big game like the one at the Emirates tomorrow, is borderline sacrilege. With that said, considering how impressive our performance was against West Brom, and how balanced the side – and, more importantly, the midfield - looked it’s difficult to suggest anything other than an unchanged side, especially away from home.
Of course, everything depends on how he looks in training, but I hope we exercise caution and don’t bring him back until he’s ready. This will be Arsenal’s fifth game in a little over two weeks, so he’d be a great option coming off the bench when they hopefully start to get a bit leggy in the second half.
Moving forward, however, there is no doubt that the boss, bantam Brazilian bastard should be one of the first names on the teamsheet. As things stand I’ve no real preference as to whether we persist with three at the back or revert back to the system we used last season; his versatility gives us several options in terms of how to accommodate him in to the side, and a convincing case could be made either way.
But I must admit that the football hipster inside me is curious to see how we would perform over a prolonged period with a 3-4-1-2 with Coutinho behind Suarez and Sturridge. I think it is a system that plays to the collective strengths of the players we currently have more than the 4-3-3, and playing one of the three aforementioned players out wide seems like a bit of a waste.
As for who he replaces in the side, again that all depends on what system we use going forward, but the solution appears to be pretty straight forward in both cases: the in-form players deserve to keep their place in the side. In the 3-4-1-2 he would play as the most advanced of the midfield three and thus would replace one of Gerrard, Lucas or Henderson; in a 4-3-3 he would obviously replace one of the three centre-backs.
Whilst suggesting that Coutinho should be thrust straight back in to the side contradicts my previous statement, the attacking triumvirate of Coutinho, Sturridge and Suarez is simply too good to ignore and if we want to finish in the top four they need to all be on the pitch as much as possible. Plus it will put an end to this god awful SAS nonsense, as CSS, SCS and SSC all sound like furniture companies that have long gone bankrupt.
Alex Woo
Whilst it's fantastic to have him back, I don't think we should be throwing Coutinho back into the side for the Arsenal game. For one thing, he's been out a while and probably isn't fit enough to be starting the game, but even if he were I wouldn't be picking him for this one anyway.
If it were a home game (or even an away game against less stiff opposition) then I'd want the little Brazilian on the pitch more often than not. But Arsenal away? No, we need to beef up the middle of the park for this one or we'll get over ran in there, as that's the strength of the Gunners. Lucas is therefore essential for a game like this, as is the running power of Henderson (outstanding in this fixture last season and someone well capable of exploiting the large gaps Arsenal leave in behind their defence when they go forward), and for me the mere suggestion of going into any game with Gerrard not in the line up is just crazy talk.
A couple of weeks ago the situation looked fairly straight forward; we were playing 3-4-1-2 and Victor Moses was keeping Coutinho's shirt warm for him until he was ready to return. The system never really looked quite right, however, despite the obvious positives of being able to play Suarez and Sturridge closer together without having to make one of them sacrifice themselves by playing wide (as Suarez did at Arsenal last season).
Many of us put that down to Moses not really being suited to the number 10 role, but when Coutinho was ready to return things would look much better, right? Not necessarily, at least not if Rodgers' comments this week mean anything. I thought this was very interesting:
“If you look at the games we've played, we've had quite a few shots against us. But when you flip the triangle and play with the one controller, it pushes the other two midfielders up the pitch more, so they can press it better. Then when the ball does get switched, they're in position to press again.
“It's something I've always known, and always wanted to do, but I can only deal with the players I have available."
That suggests he isn't ideally wanting to play 3-4-1-2, but more of the 3-1-4-2 we saw last week against West Brom. In that system, where does Coutinho play? Well he probably doesn't, so for him to come back we'll need to see another tweak to the system, and I'm sure we will do. It might be one of the centre backs dropping out and a switch to a 4-1-2-1-2 midfield diamond, or more likely one of the centre midfielders being sacrificed to allow Coutinho to play behind the front two.
Something will have to be done as Coutinho is too talented to be left out of the side once he's fully fit and capable of playing 90 minutes. That's unlikely to be the case this weekend though, and I'd expect him to be watching from the bench and only get on either if things aren't going to plan in some way, whether it's scoreline or injury.
Dave Usher
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