Barring Xabi , Mascherano & Suarez. There aren’t too many examples of footballers who’ve left Liverpool and improved.
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Joins Liverpool, starts to look good.
Gains confidence, becomes a mainstay.
Develops more, becomes a star.
Starts to think he’s better than he is, agitates (in a very crass way) for a move to the dream destination of all Latin players - Barcelona.
Sold for huge bucks, struggles to adapt and fit in. We go from strength to strength.
Form in free fall, unsuccessful loans, sold cheaply to mid table Villa, fails there, disappears from view.
It’s a sad story really. He was great for us before his head was turned, and now he’s a nobody.
Thank you for the memories
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To be fair that back injury kept him out for 6 months.
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He wasn’t far off KDB when he moved to Barca. Amazing how much he’s regressed since then.
Both him and Hazard.
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I think it’s great. Phil is an walking advertisement for us - don’t leave when you think the grass is greener. Liverpool is the top destination any of our players should play for and they should expect it will be all downhill once they leave.
Man, talk about falling off a cliff. I wouldn’t call him useless, he was / is damn good but that seems to be the position he finds himself in now.
If he walked for nothing i might be inclined to agree,but even without the 145mp we got for him he had more than paid back the 8 million and his wages that we spent on him.
If Salah was to run down his contract and go for nothing i wouldn’t begrudge him either as he has also more than paid back the money we’ve given him and Roma.
Disappointed with both of them leaving as would prefer all our top players to stay with us,but if we do well out of their time with us and/or after they have left then it make them going a little easier to take.
The way I see things is that all our players have their time with us. There is a natural rotation. It’s how they perform while here and in a crazy way how they leave is equally important (to me)
Coutinho? Meh, thanks while you were here and the outgoing transfer fee.
Somewhere there’s a very funny mime of Cou and Owen. Like the England pizza penalty takers’ one.
Despite his incredible regression he still managed a couple of League trophies and a CL trophy.
The whole “falling off a cliff” narrative those wanna drive is wide of the mark anyhow, yes eventually he did regress but why? The answer: Koeman.
He didn’t suddenly fail to live up to expectations like your Sancho’s or Felix’s or Hazard’s…he carried on where he left off for the first 18 months and then again when he was sent on loan to Bayern…helped both those sides massively win league titles and champions leagues.
Comes back to Barca only to find a manager who’s failed wherever he’s been….taking over, ex Everton in all….of course he was gonna cast him aside.
He had a good half season or so when he shifted from Liverpool to Barcelona. Then the next season with Barca was below par. He still had a league title to boast about but one where he increasingly was made a peripheral candidate. Then came the move to Bayern where he effectively was a substitute. He did okay as a bit part player but not enough for Bayern to splurge the cash to buy him. This was where Barca lost the plot , A buy option of 60m should in theory have been enough to get any buyer in. Instead they kept a way too high an option.
The next season can be partly accounted for Barca having a substandard Everton reject in Koeman and it became a free fall from then onwards.
Also wasn’t a fully developed player when he made his move from Liverpool. Klopp was beginning to scratch the surface with the possibilities. Just about managed to start delivering the end product when he got himself a transfer to Barca. Not complaining, we got the best goalkeeper in the world and the best centerback in the world for that money.
Thanks Phil for that.
What is this?
Phil only had 18 months at Barca before he was shipped out on loan (to a team who also didnt get anything out of him). He was made to go on loan because his performances for them up to that time were largely shit. He was being booed by large sections of the fans after only about 10 or so games of his first season and that remained a constant through his first stint there (remember the cupped ear celebration after his CL goal against Utd?). I dont remember it being much of a thing after coming back from Bayern because the expectations of him by then were largely zero and he didnt play enough to get abuse
That 18 month period was the second half of 17-18 and 18-19. The manager during that 18 months was Valverde. Koeman didnt come in until 20-21, the point at which Phil came back from Bayern, but by that point it had been 2 and half seasons of utterly forgettable football from him.
Koeman is shit but even he isnt shit enough to be responsible for the bad performances a player gave for the 2 and half years prior to working with him.
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2013 - 2018 152 appearances 41 goals for LFC.
2018 - 2022 99 appearances 25 goals for Barca and Bayern.
For the transfer fee that was paid, that’s form falling off a cliff.
I’m with @Limiescouse on this. Poor purchase by Barca who were looking fair an Inesta replacement and Coutinho was never going to be that. Performances never got close to expectation and he regressed. Shipped off to Bayern and didn’t get going there either. No idea why.
I actually believe that back injury was career altering. He hasn’t been the same player since.
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