The Liverpool injury crisis is worsening it seems, with our no.10 Coutinho withdrawing from the Brazil squad to face Chile and Venezuela, the official website confirmed.
He was replaced by legendary attacker Kaka, although irritatingly, the report doesn’t state what’s wrong with Coutinho, or how serious the injury is. He played the full 90 against Everton, putting in a below par performance, and while he seemingly left the field without any problems, he’s not been deemed fit enough to join up with El Selecao.
Roberto Firmino, Christian Benteke, Jordan Henderson, Dejan Lovren and Jon Flanagan are all currently out, and if Coutinho’s problem is serious the incoming manager will truly be arriving to a depleted squad.
It’ll be mighty interesting to see how the new boss, likely Jurgen Klopp (via BBC Sport), uses the player who developed under Rodgers into Liverpool’s best.
Klopp has always played with a narrow 4-2-3-1, meaning he could deploy Coutinho on the left or in the middle, but it could work better to enable the South American to start slightly on the left, giving Roberto Firmino, a far more natural goalscorer, the role behind a centre-forward.
Time will tell, of course!
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