Jason McAteer has drawn comparisons between new Liverpool man Fabio Carvalho and ex-Red Philippe Coutinho.
The former was a real favourite of the fans at Anfield before he forced a move away from the club and joined Barcelona where he struggled to perform at the levels required to succeed at the Camp Nou.
Meanwhile, Carvalho has arrived from Fulham this summer after impressing in the Championship last term and McAteer has questioned whether the Portugal youth international is ready to play Premier League football just yet, but explained that he can see signs of our former No. 10 in the midfielder’s game.
“He’s got bags of talent, we saw that when he was at Fulham, a great prospect with loads of potential,” McAteer told LFCTV [via HITC].
“He’s come to a new club and he’s trying to impress the lads. Whether he gets a lot of starts remains to be seen, he’s in an area of the pitch where there’s not too much up for grabs, we’ve just waxed-lyrical about Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and the Ox can play in there. I’m not sure he’s quite ready yet, but he looks like Coutinho to me, he plays like that doesn’t he?”
Coutinho was an unbelievable player when he was at the club.
He’s now back in the English top-flight and playing under former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa and he seems to be enjoying his football once again.
Back when he was wearing the famous Red shirt, he had the ability to win games single-handedly and he’s scored some stunning goals during his career.
We can certainly see where McAteer is coming from drawing comparisons between Carvalho and the Brazilian.
They both appear to have the ability to receive the ball on the half-turn and to create endless amounts of chances for their teammates.
Last season alone, our new signing scored 11 goals and assisted eight in 38 appearances for Marco Silva’s side as they won the Championship and therefore earned promotion back to the top-flight.
The pair have a very similar physique and it would be great if our No. 28 can perform at the levels which Coutinho did when he was on Merseyside.
We’re expecting to get another glimpse of Carvalho in a Liverpool shirt later today when we face Patrick Viera’s Crystal Palace in Singapore – we’ll just have to wait and see!