LIVERPOOL FC’s newest starlet, Philippe Coutinho, has expressed his burning desire for the club to return to the Europa League next season, as Brendan Rodgers wants to end his debut season with the Reds on a positive note.
Liverpool saw those hopes dented against West Ham on Sunday, but are still contenders for European action with their most challenging fixtures against Chelsea and a Merseyside derby against Everton being the remaining potential stumbling blocks.
Coutinho arrived to Anfield from Inter Milan for a fee of around £8 million in January, and from then on has proved his worth with a number of assists and 2 goals in his 6 appearances so far.
The Reds exciting number 10 stated: “It’s very important for the club and for the players. Liverpool must play for European trophies all the time. We will do our utmost in the last few games to get maximum points in order for us reach a place in the Europa League.”
Liverpool’s performance has improved drastically since the January acquisition of Coutinho and their other signing, Daniel Sturridge. In particular, Coutinho’s alliance with Luis Suarez looks nothing less than lethal. Coutinho revealed one factor in their partnership:
“We always communicate in Spanish on the pitch – I spent six months on loan in Spain so I can get by quite well. Suarez is a fantastic player and it’s an honour to play with him. Together I hope we achieve great things for Liverpool. He’s excellent, always on the move during the game, and helps you open the defence more easily.”
Coutinho concluded by revealing how Brendan Rodgers has pulled out all the stops to help Coutinho adapt.
“He speaks to me in Spanish. He always asks me to help my team-mates by marking opposition players – he’s always asking me to improve my marking! I’m quite shy, but having players like Steven Gerrard and Lucas making me feel welcome is a huge boost for me.”
[ad_pod id=’DFP-MPU’ align=’right’]
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at live4liverpool@snack-media.com
Follow us on Twitter here: @live4Liverpool and ‘Like’ us on Facebook
This new format on mobile is awful, please change back to what it was for crying out loud.
Agreed I don’t like it at all
and quick smart please
oh. and by the way… great stuff so far from coutinho… hopefully for the rest of the season… whats left… and for the rest of his career… at liverpool… if he works out!!! lol