Even more so now that Coutinho is out until the end of October We've just got to hope that Sturridge, Moses and Gerrard can do a good job still.
Yes we were rumoured to have bid. Have just started a match thread so feel free to comment there as well RHC.
Reports were that we had a bid accepted, but Coutinho wanted to wait on the interest from Liverpool and (IIRC) Tottenham. Was a disappointment, because over the past twelve months our transfers have settled into a rather odd pattern, and one of the defining features of those various sagas has been the sentence "X, who has been linked extensively to Liverpool...". Not fair when you actually sign one of the players who you're rumoured to be competing for!
A lot of players struggled in the first half adjusting to the conditions. The ball was consistently pulling up short on a few passes and not bouncing as people expected. He wasn't perfect though and I agree he improved second half.
Before signing Moses, I'd have said that was a good tactic as we're usually quite narrow, we ask the FBs to provide the width.