DBasia.news – Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool’s manager, had flooded his former foster child, Philippe Coutinho, with compliments. Coutinho was seen by Klopp as Alessandro Del Piero, a Juventus legend.
Coutinho, 27, played for Liverpool in the 2013-2018 period before moving to Barcelona. This season, the Brazilian has been on loan at Bayern Munchen for a season with a permanent purchase option at the end of the season.
Even though his career at Barcelona has not been great, Coutinho is still regarded by Klopp as a quality player and can be a match differentiator. The German manager assesses Bayern’s decision to recruit him was correct.
“He (Coutinho) is a very dominant player and can help the team. Of course, he still needs time to adapt (at Bayern), so he is not immediately dominant, but they get great players,” Klopp told Kicker.
“He does not play in the favorite number 10 position (attacking midfielder behind the striker) with us. He can play as a great number 8 or a left wing attacker as he is strong in a narrow area, plus he is quite strong in a lot of space.”
Coutinho and Del Piero have different positions and roles. Even so, Klopp still saw a similar playing style between the two different players of the era.
“He has good instincts for scoring goals. Since I last saw Alessandro Del Piero, I have never seen anyone score constant goals from the left side. Bayern needs him. Now, he has to adapt and maintain it to get full quality. The Bundesliga has great players, “explained Klopp.