Jurgen Klopp has claimed that he was forced into selling former Liverpool playmaker Phillipe Coutinho.
The German boss revealed how he wanted to keep the Brazilian international at Anfield subject to Barcelona interest, a move which the 27-year-old wanted to make at the time.
Speaking at the Sports Bild Awards as quoted by Gianluca Di Marzio, Klopp claimed Coutinho was a player that he would have never had sold if he didn’t have to.
“A player of absolute substance,” he said.
“I had him at Liverpool and I would never have sold him if I wasn’t forced to.”
Coutinho made 201 appearances for Liverpool during his spell in the Premier League, scoring 54 goals and adding an impressive 45 assists on top of that, and recently completed a move to Bayern Munich.
OPINION
There is no doubting the fact that Coutinho was world-class during his spell at Liverpool, but he hasn’t reached the same heights since he left Anfield at the beginning of 2018. The fact that Barcelona have already sanctioned an exit for the Brazilian to move to Germany only proves that they expected so much more of him. The 27-year-old was involved in 99 goals for the Reds, and could only manage 22 goals and 11 assists at the Spanish giants. Klopp might not realise it, but he was involved in a masterstroke when sanctioning an exit for Coutinho. The playmaker only averaged 2 shots on goal per game last season and completed a poor 0.9 key passes each outing according to WhoScored – two stats that were drastically better at Liverpool where he averaged 2.9 key passes per game. Liverpool benefitted massively from the sale of Coutinho, and currently are the only winners from that deal, whether they know it or not.
