The Brazilian has shown the club’s ambition, but the classes want to learn from the location of a new coach after the sacking of Steven Gerrard.
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By the time the guy arrived that the greatest beloved footballer moment in history no longer mattered. Intelligently, yes, because Aston Villa was 4 goals behind the smart. That didn’t replace an 11-touch cameo, seven passes, 3 of which were missed.
The other four of Aston Villa’s five notorious had started and shone. Philippe Coutinho was the guy when Brentford were beaten 4-0. Leon Bailey, actually his most productive performance for Villa, Danny Ings and Ollie Watkins scored. Emi Buendía was given the central author role that could have been Coutinho’s alone. At least the result, Villa’s biggest joint win since Liverpool’s 7-2 demolition, meant they were no longer the division’s second-highest scorers and were not replacing a team in relegation. zone. His brief outing, however, extended his recent record to just one goal and he failed to lend a hand in 22 games.
Coutinho is not Villa’s £142m man, of course. In fact, his £17 million move makes him the cheapest of their five most sensible strikers, at least if your salary is not taken into account. They saw an incompatible band, a quartet under Dean Smith and a quintet for Gerrard, after the arrival of Coutinho.
Rarely has there been a mixture or formula that fits well enough without preventing others. The occasional days when it worked before (and Coutinho spectacularly smart in Gerrard’s biggest win, a 4-0 win over Southampton in which Ings and Watkins scored) gave the impression like false dawns.
They can be called the Grealish gang, the strikers who, in addition to Watkins, were signed with the proceeds from Jack Grealish’s £100 million move to Manchester City, and it can be argued that they ended up with two Villa managers. In itself, this would possibly be a warning to Gerrard’s successor.
If Coutinho’s decline is an incredibly iconic story — about Barcelona’s mismanagement and footballing thinking, Liverpool’s rise to fame, a career undermined by a miscalculated move — it has become a symbolic failure for Gerrard. The star signing, the fantastic player, the evidence of the coach’s attractive force, can become a cornerstone for Villa. Gerrard’s legacy includes a footballer who can be seen as a mature task to rejuvenate or dismissed as a past.
What Coutinho is, and what Gerrard was, is a sign of ambition. If clubs like Villa want to have it, and if they went into decline when they lost it halfway to Randy Lerner, ambition will have to be combined with strategy and a sense of realism. Links with Thomas Tuchel as Gerrard’s putative replacement have seemed far-fetched. of the Portuguese management, it is deceived, it would be a coup d’état. Otherwise, Villa asks for an achievable goal.
Aston Villa’s Philippe Coutinho in action Brentford
It remains to be seen whether Gerrard’s team attracts or alienates potential candidates. There was short-termism in the signings of Lucas Digne, Diego Carlos, Ings and Coutinho, all over the age of at least 29, and yet Gerrard left Villa in 17th place. Villa has paid around £400 million in fees since promotion in 2019, partially offset by the sale of Grealish, yet over the past 18 months, the team has rarely looked at the sum of their beloved parts.
One school of ideas is that players are not as smart as their value and reputation labels recommend and whether Tyrone Mings’ unfortunate habit of error indicates that Gerrard’s research into the fallen captain as a player is correct, if not his handling of the situation. Another is that the coach is more to blame and there is untapped prospect on this team; Find the chemistry to turn Americans into a unit and there’s room for improvement. The early substitution of goalkeeper Aaron Danks to add breadth to the attack was amply rewarded against Brentford, but it remains to be seen whether the enigmatic Bailey’s devastating display proves he can return to the form he has brought 15 goals in a season to Bayer Leverkusen, or make him unique. Still, he’s the team’s only herbal winger.
Philippe Coutinho on the substitutes’ bench
Gerrard also felt untapped potential at the club, though he can’t reveal it. It’s the biggest between London and the North West, but while Villa is now the smartest top of the Midlands mini-league, it’s only 14th in the actual standings. They’ve played most of the supposedly less difficult games, which worsens Gerrard’s record this season, and his next five conflicting matches are all at the sensible maximum of 10. This indicates a problematic legacy. Executive director Christian Purslow claimed Villa had an initial list of 20 men last year, but Gerrard gave the impression of being the only candidate he was seriously considering. . It serves as a reminder of noble goals, but your managerial quest will need to be based on more forged principles. Villa has proven that he can dream. Now they have to turn out that they can plan.
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Aston Villa will have to be informed of the signing of Philippe Coutinho
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Aston Villa’s Philippe Coutinho in action Brentford
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Philippe Coutinho on the substitutes’ bench
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Give your opinion on BT Sport’s Action Woman Awards and vote here. The winners will be announced at the awards rite on Wednesday 16 November and streamed for all to watch on BT Sport, online and on Facebook and YouTube.
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