Jamie Carragher admits that he had his doubts about Philippe Coutinho but now insists that he would improve every other team in the Premier League.
The former Liverpool defender and current Sky Sports pundit says that the Brazilian is now among the best players in England after his improvement this season.
Coutinho made it into our XI of most-improved players this week and Carragher was very enthusiastic in his Daily Mail column:
‘There used to be a time when I would roll my eyes. Philippe Coutinho’s name would be mentioned alongside a team such as Real Madrid but I never took it seriously.
‘Coutinho at the Bernabeu one day? You could see in training the quiet lad Liverpool signed from Inter Milan in January 2013 was skilful and had ability but I wasn’t sure what I saw at Melwood would translate to the biggest stage, given some of the things he did in those early matches.
‘Now look at him. Coutinho has become one of the stars of the Premier League, the driving force behind Liverpool’s impressive early form and the key to them sustaining what could yet become a challenge for the title. I’m not rolling my eyes any longer.
‘He is playing at such a level that you could put him in the No 10 position of any of Liverpool’s rivals – Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester United – and he would fit in seamlessly and enhance their quality.
‘This is a golden age for No 10s in the Premier League. When I was growing up in the 1990s, I used to watch Serie A on TV and they had the monopoly on players in that position, __with Roberto Baggio (Juventus), Rui Costa (Fiorentina), Dejan Savicevic (AC Milan) and Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus) four of the stellar cast.
‘But look at England now. Spain may boast the world’s best players but no other league can match the amount of No 10s we see each week, whether it be Mesut Ozil; the Tottenham pair of Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen; Manchester City have Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva.
‘If that wasn’t enough, how about Dimitri Payet, Eden Hazard and Juan Mata? They started out as wide players but they now come in and play between the lines. There are so many of these types that it has led to the death of the old-fashioned winger but do not doubt for a moment that Coutinho deserves to be bracketed among those names.’