Jurgen Klopp says he was ‘forced’ into selling Coutinho to Barcelona, with the player no longer wanting to be a part of his project.
The Brazilian left for humongous money in January 2018, but failed to live up to his price-tag in Spain and has just joined Bayern Munich on a glamorous loan deal until the end of this season.
Liverpool were given first refusal on the option to loan Phil back, but the club refused after Barca demanded an extravagant fee for the deal.
Judging by these quotes though, Klopp would have happily had the playmaker back if the money was right.
“(Coutinho’s) a player of absolute substance. I had him at Liverpool and I would never had sold him, if I wasn’t forced to,” he said, cited in the Echo, when asked about his biggest LFC regrets. “The offer was undeniable to us, it seemed strange, we couldn’t allow ourselves to hold him back.”
We predict Coutinho will shine in Germany. He’s a world-class player and his failings at Barcelona are not representative of his ability.
And in fairness, he still won back-to-back La Liga titles during his 18-month stay.
It’s more important for us though that Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain prove they can fill our attacking midfield void. Last term, injuries to Ox and a settling-in period for Keita meant we normally deployed a more functional central three, but we’d like to see Klopp using one of our midfield dynamos as often as possible in 2019/20.