Whatever you might think about Barcelona’s pursuit of Philippe Coutinho, you certainly can’t accuse them of flashing the cash on a whim.
La Liga’s leaders have been relentlessly chasing the Brazilian playmaker for nearly a year now, and even the spiralling fee they eventually had to cough up wasn’t enough to dissuade them from pushing through the deal for a player who was clearly their number one target.
The question is why exactly Barca were so determined to stretch Liverpool’s resistance to breaking point, and the answer is pretty simple: Andres Iniesta.
The iconic club captain, who will turn 34 in May, is on his last legs now, and needs to be replaced as a matter of urgency.
Iniesta has already started 13 league games in the current campaign, as many as he managed in the entirety of last season, but his frailty is shown by the fact that he was substituted in every single one of those outings, also being replaced before the 90-minute mark in each of his four Champions League games this season.
In the short-term, manager Ernesto Valverde is determined to minimise the dangers of Iniesta suffering injury or loss of form through an overload of work, and the recruitment of Coutinho – who is cup-tied for the Champions League – will allow Iniesta to take a break on the weekends and focus his efforts on the likes of Chelsea.
And from a longer-term perspective, it’s increasingly apparent that Iniesta will be able to play fewer and fewer games over the remainder of his career, and that his availability should be regarded as a welcome bonus rather than a taken for-granted-given.
Of course, it should be acknowledged that neither Coutinho nor anyone else could ever be regarded as a direct replacement for a legend like Iniesta, who has made the second-highest number of appearances in the Blaugrana’s history and may well end up overhauling his long-time midfield partner Xavi in first place.
Days are numbered: Andres Iniesta
Nobody could fill Iniesta’s shoes and offer exactly the same qualities as the dribbling wizard, so it would be unfair to burden Coutinho with a tag like ‘the new Iniesta’.
But in terms of a position in the team which needs to be occupied – linking midfield with attack, using technical ability to control the rhythm of a game and prise open opposition defences – Iniesta’s gradual decline means there’s an important vacancy and Barca’s dogged pursuit of Coutinho makes it clear they believe he is the best possible option.
Whether he really is the best option remains to be seen, but Coutinho will need to change his style if he wants to succeed at Camp Nou – especially considering the new playmaking role now being filled by Lionel Messi.
Simply stated, Coutinho needs to make sure that he doesn’t get in Messi’s way – quite literally, because they like to occupy similar spaces on the pitch, just outside the penalty area, searching for space between the lines of the opposition midfield and defence.
At Liverpool, Coutinho has been the team’s chief playmaker, with the responsibility for feeding his team’s forwards.
Barcelona, however, already have someone else who is pretty good at doing that, and it will be vital for Coutinho to support Messi’s creative skills rather than trying to outshine them.
I really rate him, but wonder how many death stares from Messi it will take to stop Coutinho screaming his own name and shooting every time he gets on the ball 30 yards from goal?
— Chris Dixon (@chrismd10) January 6, 2018
Perhaps it’s easier to think of the necessities of Coutinho’s role in this way: instead of linking up with another former Liverpool player, Luis Suarez, his closest partner in associative play should be Sergio Busquets, taking on the responsibility for generating phases of possession rather than concluding them.
It’s not as simple as this, of course, but the ‘chain of command’ as the ball moves forward should be something like Busquets-Coutinho-Messi-Suarez, and the Brazilian will therefore have to become accustomed to playing in a deeper position than he did for Liverpool, helping to control the centre circle rather than penetrating the penalty box.
This is all just a loose guide rather than a rigid framework, and Coutinho’s versatility ensures he will be given plenty of opportunities to showcase the finishing skills which have seen him become a regular on Liverpool’s scoresheet.
But that will not be his most important task. With Messi, Suarez and Ousmane Dembele all available to score goals, and Antoine Griezmann perhaps joining them in the summer, Barca need someone to maintain the flow of the team, and to help carry out defensive duties to ensure Busquets isn’t overloaded off the ball.
It’s a major challenge, but for such a sky-high fee that is only to be expected. Coutinho has the talent, no doubt. But the question now is whether he possesses the selflessness to adjust his natural game and fit his abilities into a team structure which is built around someone else.
