Coutinho has been criticised by former Brazilian forward Neto in his homeland.
Our no.10 has been the talk of South America over the past few months, with Liverpool refusing to sell him to Barcelona.
He came off the bench and scored a winner against Ecuador last week though and is expected to start against Colombia in tonight’s World Cup Qualifier.
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Neto though thinks the hype is so far unjustified and that Renato Augusto, who plays in China, is better!
“So you know, how many titles he has won with Liverpool? None,” Neto told Brazilian TV show Os Donos da Bola.
“Just to make it clear to you, because it seems that Philippe Coutinho is Zico, he’s Socrates, who did not win the World Cup.
“But they deserved to win!
“Philippe Coutinho is not all that you’re talking about. Calm down, slow down.
“He is a very good player but I prefer Renato Augusto.”
Truthfully, Augusto cannot tie Coutinho’s boots, so we’re not treating Neto’s opinion with too much respect.
Bar Neymar, he’s been his country’s best player for over 12 months now as well, so unlike Neto, we think the hype is very much justified.
We’d just like to see him doing it in a red shirt shortly…
Following his return, Liverpool have a PR job on their hands to get Coutinho back in fan good-books.
An open apology will no doubt do wonders.