Phil Thompson has urged Liverpool to re-sign Phillipe Coutinho from Barcelona, claiming he would have him back at Anfield “in a heartbeat”.
The 26-year-old Brazilian left Anfield last January for the Catalan giants, but has struggled to make the same kind of impact in Spain as he did in the Premier League.
And speaking to Sky Sports, Thompson suggested that the Reds should move to bring him back to Merseyside.
He said: “I would take him back in a heartbeat, but it would have to be now. You don’t want to leave it another 12 months, I think he still has the ability.
“He’s suffered at Barcelona. We’ve seen him playing out wide on the left, but he’s not Neymar. He likes to be in the middle where he can pull strings and is getting on the ball to hurt teams.
“He doesn’t do that and he’s not a left-winger and that’s where he’s playing at Barcelona; they don’t love him like Liverpool loved him.”
OPINION
In an ideal world, Coutinho would never have left Liverpool in the first place, but you have to ask yourself whether the Reds actually need him now. There were a lot of detractors who claimed that Jurgen Klopp’s men would struggle without the Brazilian, but if anything, they look more balanced without him in the side, and the money they got for him has been invested brilliantly in the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker. Bringing Coutinho back wouldn’t come cheap, and in the grand scheme of things, the sizeable outlay it would no doubt cost could be more wisely spent elsewhere. This Liverpool side isn’t about lavish frivolities or unnecessary galacticos, and you get the impression that Klopp would only go for Coutinho if he was desperately needed. As it stands, he is not. As nice as it would be to have him back, it’s hard to see it coming to pass.
