"He was non-existent": Aston Villa legend DESTROYS Coutinho
The Aston Villa star faced some harsh criticism from one of the former starts of the team
Philippe Coutinho remains that irregular player that FC Barcelona suffered for almost four years and for whom the absurd figure of 145 million euros was paid to Liverpool FC in January 2018. The Brazilian has now moved permanently to Aston Villa and some at the Villains already have serious doubts about his level.
Coutinho had a disappointing start to the 2022-23 season
After Villa's poor start in the 2022-23 Premier League, losing 2-0 against recently-promoted Bournemouth, the criticism came immediately. Gabby Agbonlahor, former Aston Villa player, was tough on the Brazilian. "The big disappointment was [Philippe] Coutinho. He's been brought in by Steven Gerrard and he was non-existent and didn't really get on the ball. He had a shot in the second half and it went horribly wide and you think, this isn't Coutinho", the said during an interview with UK network talkSPORT.
For now, as Agbonlahor pointed out, Coutinho has the support of Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard, who was the one who requested his signing, but the team has another big talent on the bench, the Argentine Emiliano Buendía. "He needs to dominate games. He's keeping a new signing from last year in Emi Buendia on the bench so he has to be taking the games by the scruff of the neck, getting on the ball, making things happen", added Agbonlahor. So far Coutinho has played 20 games for Aston Villa, scoring five goals and another three assists.
Coutinho knows he has Gerrard's support, as he said a couple of months ago: "I came here to the club probably because he called me. We spoke about many things and he was the first contact from the club. I came here because of him. I was at home when he called and we did a Zoom and spoke about a lot of things. It didn't take long to decide because I wanted to play and this was a big opportunity. Now I am very happy that I have signed".
Gabriel Agbonlahor played 391 games for Aston Villa, between 2005 and 2018, scoring 86 goals and providing 60 assists
Another problem is that the Brazilian had forgotten the level of the Premier League: "I had to remember how physical this football was. The first training sessions and matches were tough. I've been here for six months and I hope that after a whole preseason my strenght will improve. I missed it a lot and now I feel more love for football. For a long time I wasn't very happy playing football, but here I feel happy again. That's why I decided to stay". It may be so, but Aston Villa will need more of their star man this 2022-23 season to make his signing worthwhile.
Continue reading: United and Real Madrid were CRAZY for him but he's going to the Bundesliga
Esta nota habla de:
