It’s been a huge return to form for Philippe Coutinho since December, with the midfielder not only beginning to hit the heights of when he first joined LFC but actually looking like he’s maturing to hit a whole new level.
Having previously been given the Standard Chartered award in December, Coutinho has now taken the award in three of the last 6 months.
The little Brazilian may have only scored a single goal in January but it was the nature of his displays that shone through, with Coutinho showing flashes of brilliance and winning a number of man of the match awards for his contributions.
Coupled with the new contract that Phil signed recently, it has been a stellar start to 2015 for the player that many believe, if not already, at least has the potential to be one of the best attacking midfielders in Europe. If not the world.
Signed from Inter Milan in 2013, Coutinho was already making waves for some early performances in Italy and had clearly impressed his previous manager – Rafa Benitez – who confirmed that he believed the player was the ‘future of Inter’. However, that wasn’t to be (Inter’s loss, you may say) as ‘little Phil’ has now committed his future to Liverpool.
With a few more months of performances like we’ve seen a lot of recently (and with the return of Sturridge), Coutinho can really begin to excel as he did in tandem with Dan when the two first joined the club.
Let’s hope that starts with another man of the match display against Besiktas on Thursday night!