Philippe Coutinho has always been this good

Coutinho is a true original

Philippe Coutinho is, for reasons I’ve never quite understood, somewhat of a divisive player. The divide seems mostly to center on his production, or lack thereof. He’s talented, his detractors say, but he’s not consistent enough, or he drifts out of games, or some other oblique way of saying he doesn’t score enough goals or contribute enough assists.

This season, of course, Coutinho has so far contributed enough goals and assists — he has five of each in 10 league starts, and is more or less unquestionably the key cog in the league’s most prolific attack. And perhaps this should come as no surprise.

Since Coutinho joined the club, Liverpool have finished seventh, second, sixth and eighth in the league. In those seasons, Coutinho has been 20, 21, 22 and 23 years old (I’ll let you figure out the order). In other words, Coutinho’s perceived weakness has been his lack of precisely those skills that history tells us develop with age. So it’s quite possible this season is just the next step in his natural development.

That this leap has come under Jurgen Klopp, a manager renowned for improving young players, should perhaps come as no surprise either. The consistency with which Coutinho is providing telling contributions in matches owes much to his manager, and in particular the fluid attacking system his manager has developed around him. The key criticism of Coutinho prior to this season — that, basically, he isn’t involved enough — is no longer an option. If you don’t contribute under Klopp, in all phases of the game, you don’t play.

In this light, Coutinho’s improvement this season looks like a combination of his natural development and the fact he is, arguably for the first time in his Liverpool career, playing in a well-managed team. In another light, however, all of this is irrelevant.

Because the thing about Coutinho, and this is a very rare thing, is that the raw numbers have always felt somewhat beside the point. Coutinho is in a very select group of players who don’t necessarily need to produce goals and assists to justify their presence in a team (at least according to one, possibly unpopular, interpretation of what the point of a player is, more on which below.)

Lionel Messi is the most famous member of this group, a player so good he could have gone his whole career without scoring a goal and still have been the most captivating player on the planet.

Coutinho is so naturally gifted, such a joy to watch simply controlling the ball and running with the ball, that the goals and assists, if they matter at all, come to seem merely like a bonus. There is an unteachable smoothness to his game, a beauty to the way he plays that has nothing to do with whether he is directly contributing to the result. And this has been very evidently on display throughout his career.

My feeling, petty thought it undoubtedly is, is this: if you didn’t appreciate Coutinho before he was scoring and assisting at his current rate, you don’t deserve to appreciate him now.

This feeling rests on an understanding of why we watch this sport that I imagine is less than universally popular. The understanding is essentially that a player’s ability to do cool, unexpected things is, to a certain extent, more important than his ability to directly affect the outcome of a match, which is to say score and/or assist goals. With the possible exception of Mesut Ozil, Coutinho embodies this understanding more than any other player in the Premier League.

The Brazilian has mostly made headlines over the past couple of seasons for cutting in on his right foot and scoring from distance. He scored a variation of this goal against Watford on Sunday. He scored another variation against West Brom a couple of weeks weeks ago, and another, free-kick variation against Arsenal in the first match of the season.

In a weird way, this is a shame, because the superficial similarities between so many of his goals have, if anything, glossed over the astounding, creative variation in his game. He’s a number 10 in the best, quickly vanishing Brazilian tradition.

This sport, and Klopp’s Liverpool in particular, is increasingly dependent on off the ball work, on power and pace and stamina and collective intensity. The true originals are becoming rare. But Coutinho is one of them, and he should be appreciated as such.

It’s possible his production will decline as this season progresses, but what makes him extraordinary is precisely that this won’t make him any less thrilling to watch.

Weekly Awards

The London Stadium Award for Worst Stadium: London Stadium

West Ham vs. Stoke, an intriguing match, I thought, for a number of reasons. Two teams that started slowly, but have lately been rounding into something more closely resembling form. Two shaky defenses and quality attacking players on both sides — Dimitri Payet, Manuel Lanzini, Wilfried Bony, Joe Allen, um, Jon Walters … the list may or may not go on. Xherdan Shaqiri was injured and Marko Arnautovic was suspended, but even so, there’s more than enough Joe Allen to go around these days. Except of course I forgot this season’s cardinal rule: don’t watch matches played at London Stadium. They are not good.

The Derby Award for Most Overdue Win: Sunderland

It only took them 11 matches, and they’re still six points from safety, but it feels safe to say Sunderland’s 2-1 win against Bournemouth was the first step in their inevitable, soul-crushing march to 17th place. The Black Cats are now level on points with Swansea, and can close the gap to Hull in 18th to a mere two points by beating them at the Stadium of Light in the first match back after the international break. Sunderland — reduced to 10 men after 59 minutes, outshot 22-9 and out-possessed 70 percent to 30 — won by way of a late-ish Jermain Defoe penalty, finally settling the debate over the most Sunderland way to win a Premier League match.

The Not Sepp Blatter Award for Learning From Mistakes: Chelsea

Since losing back-to-back matches to Liverpool and Arsenal in September, Chelsea’s last six league results have been as follow: 2-0 win, 3-0 win, 4-0 win, 2-0 win, 5-0 win. Eden Hazard remains a (note: not the) frontrunner for Player of the Year, Diego Costa is the league’s most prolific striker and Victor Moses continues to prove that if you believe in yourself and you go on loan approximately 1,000 times a season, anything’s possible. The upshot of all this is that Antonio Conte’s side look frighteningly good and, unlike Liverpool, don’t seem to have any obvious weaknesses. They face Middlesbrough after the international break, before matches against Tottenham and Manchester City. Those should be can’t-miss viewing.

The Francesco Guidolin Award for This Doesn’t Look Good: Swansea

In Bob Bradley’s defense, he’s had a tough run of games to begin his Swansea career. But still, his side were absolutely terrible in the first half against a fragile Manchester United side on Sunday. The concern is that, due to a difficult fixture list, Swansea have missed out on the boost in form that traditionally accompanies the arrival of a new manager. While it’s too soon to judge Bradley one way or another, it seems clear his team is not very good and defending, and while the attack has occasionally looked not terrible, it certainly hasn’t looked good. The Swans are now six points from safety, and with games against Everton, Crystal Palace and Tottenham coming up before what I can only imagine will be the worst match of the season against Sunderland on Dec. 10, something needs to change quickly.

The Terry Butcher Award for Playing Through Injury: Victor Valdes

Victor Valdes’ post Barcelona career has often been disturbing viewing, but never more disturbing than in Saturday’s match against Manchester City, when a collision with Jesus Navas midway through the first half left Valdes with a golf-ball sized gash in his leg. Valdes soldiered on, presumably all too aware of what another trip to the Middlesbrough bench could do to his psyche, and put in his best performance of the season. Boro were excellent in the second half, but if not for a string of excellent Valdes saves in the first, their late equalizer would almost certainly have been a late consolation.