Barça News
Will Philippe Coutinho get another chance at Barcelona?
As stated in a recent interview, Barcelona coach Setién seems to like Philippe Coutinho and wants him to stay for next season:
“Coutinho has always impressed me. He’s an astonishing player. I’m relying on the fact that he will be here next season. I don’t know what he wants to do, but maybe I should talk to him and convince him to stay.”
As with Dembélé, if Quique values him, then, like it or not, we should grant him his wish and keep him.
To take the most out of him, Setién will need to use Philippe differently to what Barcelona has done so far. The problem since day one has been the lack of coherence between what the board wanted and what they got.
? — Initial ideas of Setién:
— Barça Universal (@BarcaUniversal) January 14, 2020
1. There is a huge improvement in the midfield needed.
2. The team has problems playing out from the back starting from Ter Stegen, which must be solved.
3. Quique admires Coutinho and is looking forward to having him back.
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It all started to go downhill when then-sporting director Robert Fernández said: “I signed Coutinho to replace Iniesta”.
But the Brazilian had never been a player to control the tempos of the game but to shake them through individual actions.
To float around the final third, to add verticality and aggressiveness, and to provide that inventive touch. Never to receive in the initial stages of build-ups, control with calm passes, and dominate positionally.
? — Bayern are not satisfied with the performances of Philippe Coutinho and will not buy him permanently from Barcelona. He will return in June. [bild] pic.twitter.com/lUeJB4bkWo
— Barça Universal (@BarcaUniversal) January 21, 2020
Yes, Cou is an interior with Brazil, but the context is opposed to Barça’s. When it comes to being a central mid for the positional play, the current Bayern loanee struggles to keep the appropriate distances and be patient and regular rather than direct. More about flashes of magic than the continuity Iniesta had.
However, it’s all a matter of learning. A player’s ceiling is determined by his learning capacity. So far, we don’t seem to have challenged Coutinho to acquire the required positional concepts. Could Setién be the teacher he needs? If he wants him, that may be the case.
The icing on the cake, courtesy of @Phil_Coutinho ? pic.twitter.com/f6Vi7HIC7c
— FC Barcelona (from ?) (@FCBarcelona) April 14, 2020
Barcelona has often been too horizontal and predictable, over-relying on Messi’s imagination. Phil has the creativity and dribbling we are missing. Having that from midfield would be a joy to the eye. But then, he’ll soon turn 28 and that function could be executed by Aleñá and Riqui, who, unlike Coutinho, need no adaptation. I would much rather invest the minutes and efforts in them. But it’s undeniable that Cou’s raw material is world-class and that, if Setién guides and convinces him, he could be what we need.
See also
• Arthur: ‘I thank Inter for the interest, but my time at Barça is not over’
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In a conference held by ADEA Forum (Association of managers and executives of Aragon) in Zaragoza, Javier Tebas spoke on a wide range of topics surrounding La Liga.
Mostly, the La Liga president spoke regarding the league’s bounce back from the pandemic and some potential plans for the league to restore public crowds. He also discussed the losses incurred, the summer transfers, among other things.
The Condition of La Liga
Tebas started the conference by claiming that the situation for the Spanish league is comparatively better than other leagues.
Speaking on this, he said, “The situation is worrying, but not so much. I think that of this pandemic the Spanish League is the one that is going to turn out less badly compared to the others.”
He then spoke about the losses incurred in Spanish football, with the net loss amounting to €1 billion by the 30th of September.
On the losses, Tebas said, “Of this billion, 750 have been financed by banks or investment funds, the latter the majority based in London, and the rest have been done by the clubs pulling their cash.”
Additionally, he mentioned that it was big clubs that were affected stronger than the smaller clubs, due to the huge loss of income from the lack of crowds, among other profitable economic activities that clubs such as Real Madrid and Barcelona enjoy above others.
A return for crowds to stadiums
When speaking on a return of crowds to stadiums, the La Liga chief seemed tremendously confident in their ability to host crowds as early as tomorrow. He claimed that they would have to run at between 20% to 30% capacity; nonetheless, the Spaniard was confident that teams would be more than capable of hosting crowds very soon.
Speaking on the same, he said, “There is a working group for the return [of fans] to the stadiums. I hope that in the last league games we can see the public in a proportional amount.”
Upcoming transfer window
Speaking on the summer transfer window, the president claimed that there will indeed be a lower amount of transfers as there were in the previous window. Tebas said, “They have already been lower in winter. There may be occasional and exceptional operations, but globally it will decrease. There will be exchanges of players. It’s going to be lower than last year.”
Accordingly, clubs are going to have to dig into their academy reserves more and more as the global and financial situations amend over time.