Better for Reds if our new ‘Magician’ remains unnoticed

AFTER reading an email on a popular football website earlier this morning regarding Philippe Coutinho and how worthy he is of a call-up to the Brazil national side, I have been struck by how many similar sentiments I have come across in the proceeding 10-11 hours.

The argument goes that, Chelsea’s Oscar is barely a year older and is already a Brazil international with more than 20 caps to his name, while Coutinho has yet to win any more than that one, solitary cap he earned against Iran in 2010.

Many – myself included – would have found it hard to argue that Oscar was more worthy of a call-up to such an illustrious squad, prior to January 2013 but now things have changed.

With an impressive record for Internacional and Chelsea over the past few seasons, Oscar had more than earned his inclusion in Brazil’s squad but when you compare the two over the whole of last season (despite Coutinho only playing half of it!) Coutinho definitely comes out on top.

Over the whole of last season Oscar managed 4 goals and 7 assists in 34 league games, while our very own Brazilian wunderkinder got 3 goals and 7 assists in just 13 league games. A bit of simple math shows that over the same amount of league games as his Brazilian counterpart Coutinho would’ve managed 7 goals and 18 assists. That’s the kind of form that can make a player a leading candidate for player of the season.

However, as much as I hope that that is the kind of form we’re due to get from the little Brazilian I hope just as much that his form continues to go unnoticed by his country. At least until the end of the season, when the World Cup squads are to be announced.

With such a short, Europa League-free season ahead of us it is unlikely that we’ll see a huge amount of rotation from week-to-week. I expect that for most league games if our best 11 is available, it will play and missing out on any sort of international action will mean that a fully-fit Philippe Coutinho will be playing week-in, week-out.

Not only that, but the less recognition he receives, the far more likely we are to have less of a turbulent summer next season, such as we are at the moment.

It’s a sad thought but one of the main reasons why Luis Suarez is ‘agitating’ for a move at the moment is that he’s finally been noticed as one of Europe’s big guns and has a big fee slapped on him, all because he had such an outstanding season for Liverpool.

If Coutinho emerges as our star next season, and it’s more likely he will, given that Suarez is likely to be absent, then failing to enter the Champions League places may well see us struggle to hold onto yet another of our star performers.

Of course, international football is not guarantee of being noticed but it certainly helps and I’d be happy if the majority of the recognition and praise that our young magician receives next season comes from our own support and that he can help lead us to the top-4, even if that means it is at the expense of personal glory for his own country.

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