The Copa America kicks off on Thursday and there’s plenty to look out for. What will perhaps be of most interest to us, is the performance of Philippe Coutinho, who will be looking to guide his Brazil side to glory. However, there’s plenty else to inspire us to keep an eye on proceedings in Chile.
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We count down the top five in the list below:
Philippe Coutinho magic
Philippe Coutinho can establish himself as one of the leading names in world football this summer, if Brazil use him in the right way. By utilising Coutinho in the same No. 10 role that he plays for Liverpool – with Neymar and Willian dragging defenders away from him and with Firmino giving him a target to interact with up front – they have a chance of rediscovering the glory days and scoring themselves a first Copa America title since 2007.
The Luis Suarez effect
One player that will be absent from the tournament is this former Liverpool striker, who is still banned after the incident at last summer’s World Cup (pictured). Having scored 43 goals in 82 games for his country, it will be interesting to see how Uruguay cope without him. They still have the likes of Edinson Cavani in their squad but there’s no doubting who their main man is. We desperately struggled without him this year, will it be the same for his country on the international stage?
The return of Sebastian Coates
One man that will be turning out for Uruguay is our forgotten defender, who spent last season on loan at Sunderland. It was his international form that inspired us to bring him to Anfield in 2011, but he’s only managed 11 Premier League appearances for us since then. Now 24, his time to impress is running out, but he finished the season strongly with the Black Cats as he helped them avoid relegation and a couple of good performances could convince us to give him another chance.
Possible Signings
They’ll be a number of players on show that we’ve been linked with and with Brendan Rodgers and co still on the lookout for potential signings, there’s no better platform for players to impress than at a major international tournament. Carlos Tevez, currently with Juventus, is perhaps the pick of the players on show that we could realistically make a move for, although the likes of Roberto Firmino and Carlos Bacca are also worth watching.
You can read ‘A realistic Liverpool signing from every Copa America squad’ by clicking HERE.
The one we missed out on
The Reds have already ruled out a move for this Brazilian goalkeeper (via the Liverpool Echo), with Bolton Wanderers stopper Adam Bogdan now thought to be the man on the Reds’ transfer radar (via The Telegraph). Having originally looked the frontrunners for the former Fiorentina man, who is out of contract at the end of the season, we have to hope that he doesn’t make a fool out of by being one of the shining lights at the tournament.
