Philippe Coutinho: Liverpool to Barcelona to Bayern - what next for Brazilian midfielder?

When the deal for Philippe Coutinho to join Barcelona was finally announced following a protracted saga stretching back almost a year, there was a feeling that Liverpool had done great business on a player signed from Inter Milan five years earlier for just £8.5m.

They had squeezed every penny out of Barca, ultimately receiving a fee way in excess of what had been offered in the previous transfer window.

At the time, only Neymar's game-changing switch from Camp Nou to Paris St-Germain for an eye-watering £200m, eclipsed it.

But the Reds were losing a fans’ favourite, their best player, and someone who having only just turned 25 was in theory approaching his prime.

It simply hasn't turned out that way.

While Liverpool used that small fortune to buy defender Virgil van Dijk (£75m) and goalkeeper Allison (£67m), helping them embark on a hugely successful two-year period, Coutinho's career has at best stalled, and at worst gone downhill.

To understand just how much things have changed for Philippe Coutinho, we must first remind ourselves of just how good he was during his five-year spell on Merseyside.

After half a season of settling in, the Brazilian quickly became a vital part of the Brendan Rodgers team that narrowly missed out to Manchester City in a gripping 2013/14 title race.

Although not short of admirers, he certainly wasn't considered a key cog in the Reds' sudden rebirth as a serious Premier League contender.

But there was good reason for that.

Liverpool’s three-pronged attack of Luis Suarez, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge was ripping defences to shreds, and Coutinho was by no means a guaranteed starter. Fast forward 12 months and he was the main man.

Following that oh-so-close campaign Suarez left for Barcelona; 12 months later Sterling was on his way out too.

For Sturridge, the summer of 2014 proved to be the zenith of a career plagued by injuries ever since.

During two years of transition, in which time Rodgers was replaced as manager by Jurgen Klopp, Coutinho exerted more and more influence.

Philippe Coutinho: Liverpool stats

• 2014/15: 35 league games; 5 goals; 5 assists
• 2015/16: 26 league games; 8 goals; 5 assists
• 2016/17: 31 league games; 13 goals; 7 assists
• 2017/18: 14 league games; 7 goals; 6 assists

Even during Rodgers' final months in charge, with Liverpool struggling, Coutinho had begun to turn heads.

His growing reputation was thanks to spectacular goals, dribbling and interplay. The arrival of Klopp saw him back up eye-catching performances with end product.

In the German's first full season, Coutinho increased his goal involvements to one in every two games – not bad for a hitherto pretty, easy on the eye number 10.

On to 2016/17 and he was really taking off: it was now two in every three matches. Then in the half-season before his departure Coutinho was near enough providing a goal or assist in every single game – a combined 13 in 14 league matches.

He was bordering on world class before this surge in attacking output, but this now made him extraordinary.

And as a result, apparently worth £142m.

Philippe Coutinho did join Barcelona, eventually, something he described as "a dream move." Jurgen Klopp said at the time that "any team in the world would miss a player like Coutinho."

Liverpool, as mentioned already, simply haven't though. Two Champions League finals, one of them triumphant, and en route to a record-breaking Premier League title.

As for their former talisman, after a little over 18 months in Catalonia, he joined Bayern Munich on loan: "In Barcelona a lot of things did not turn out as we had imagined."

More on that in a moment. First, how did Coutinho get on in those one-and-a-half seasons at the Nou Camp?

He scored 13 goals and provided seven assists in 52 LaLiga games, which on the face of it sounds OK. Go back to our chart of his output at Liverpool, and it’s miles off how he was performing at Anfield.

"In Barcelona a lot of things did not turn out as we had imagined."

Barcelona have every right to demand a lot from a player for whom they paid almost £150m, of that there can be no debate. But Coutinho certainly wasn’t happy about something, and I’ll take a punt at what that was – the manager, the style of play, and his role within the team.

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Now let's revisit those numbers.

Coutinho joined Barcelona in January 2018 and during the remainder of that league campaign he had a significant impact: 18 games, eight goals, five assists. He hit the ground running. Playing as either an attacking midfielder or as he had on occasion at Liverpool, on the left of a front three.

His arrival had been considered as a possible replacement on two levels – for Neymar, to play alongside Lionel Messi and Suarez in that third attacking position, and, more likely, as a long-term midfield successor to Andres Iniesta.

That summer, Iniesta left the club and soon after head coach Ernesto Valverde introduced a new style of play. Barca would no longer play their Johan Cruyff-inspired 4-3-3 which had been the blueprint of the club for so long – it would be a narrow 4-4-2, with Messi and Suarez as the forwards.

Ultimately, that change of philosophy would cost Valverde his job, despite Barcelona winning LaLiga in both his seasons at the Nou Camp, and being top of the table when he was sacked.

So what was the effect on Coutinho? In pure numbers terms, stark.

That season, in 34 league matches he scored just five goals, and provided only two assists.

This creative genius, an absolute magician that had lit up the Premier League before getting his "dream move," who then carried that form into his opening months in Spanish football had been well and truly stunted.