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Coutinho’s the closest player to Eriksen in Europe right now I’d say. When both were in the Prem the stats were very similar, Eriksen edged him IIRC though the main difference between the two was reputation and persona. Coutinho being a Pool player instantly got him more media attention and hype, being a ‘silky Brazilian’ too also meant that he’d appeal more to big clubs than the quiet Dane at Spurs, despite - in my opinion - Eriksen being the slightly better of the two, he seemed more consistent and created more chances.

If the club feels Eriksen needs direct replacing then there won’t be many better options than Coutinho, albeit it will be a costly one and I’m not sure if Spurs would have the finances. A lot would also depend on Ndombele, it’d be impossible to fit Coutinho, Ndombele and Lo Celso into an XI and there’s not a chance in hell Spurs would allow one of them to be on the bench most weeks - likely Ndombele at the moment - when they’re on £200k a week and cost the club £55m.
 
There’s talk on Twitter that I think has stemmed from reliable Leicester accounts that Chelsea have made a breakthrough for Chilwell and that the fee will be a world record fee for a FB.

I think Cancelo holds the current record at £60m.

Leicester developing a knack of selling “ok/ good” players for world records after slabhead and now seemingly Chilwell.
 
Dier Hard said:
Coutinho’s the closest player to Eriksen in Europe right now I’d say. When both were in the Prem the stats were very similar, Eriksen edged him IIRC though the main difference between the two was reputation and persona. Coutinho being a Pool player instantly got him more media attention and hype, being a ‘silky Brazilian’ too also meant that he’d appeal more to big clubs than the quiet Dane at Spurs, despite - in my opinion - Eriksen being the slightly better of the two, he seemed more consistent and created more chances.

If the club feels Eriksen needs direct replacing then there won’t be many better options than Coutinho, albeit it will be a costly one and I’m not sure if Spurs would have the finances. A lot would also depend on Ndombele, it’d be impossible to fit Coutinho, Ndombele and Lo Celso into an XI and there’s not a chance in hell Spurs would allow one of them to be on the bench most weeks - likely Ndombele at the moment - when they’re on £200k a week and cost the club £55m.
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433 with Højbjerg, Ndombele, Lo Celso behind Kane, Son, Coutinho?
Would need to sell Lamela or Lucas to free up a non-HG place.
 
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PowerSpurs said:
433 with Højbjerg, Ndombele, Lo Celso behind Kane, Son, Coutinho?
Would need to sell Lamela or Lucas to free up a non-HG place.
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Coutinho could definitely play out wide as he's played LW many times but that'd then mean Son likely being moved to RW when he's generally better at LW. So it'd be a case of putting two top players in secondary positions. It could work though.
 
Spurlock said:
Ok, you have detected an issue with Coutinho as a footballer that means he isn’t wanted at Barca, Bayern.

Who do you think we should buy for a few bob from Norwich etc to do a similar job? Happy?
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So if we don't buy somebody who's flopped at Barca and Bayern that automatically means we're signing somebody from Norwich?

I mean I was going to suggest Marcelo Brozovic from Inter, or test Bournemouth's resolve to keep hold of David Brooks, or take advantage of Valencia's fire sale and make a bid for Dani Parejo or Lee Kang-in, but apparently Norwich players are the only ones good enough...
 
PleaseNotPoll said:
Literally no injury time at the end of the first half. I hate that.
It's a bizarre European phenomenon and they tend to add it on at the end of the second half, which makes no sense.
Barca are probably glad it's over, though. Shocking first half.
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Are Munich the only CL team in the past decade to have utterly
demolished Barca (2013 and now) ??

We know Barca lose in the CL but I cannot recall offhand other teams
who have done so in a one/two leg tie.
 
Spurlock said:
just what we need to unlock them tight defences

Good enough for Bayern, but maybe not good enough for us? Hmmm
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WTF did Barca even buy Coutinho ??
Who was he supposed to be "heir apparent" to ??

Vermin that they are, at least with Madrid you see some of the ROI
that they got from Bale (regardless of how that saga is playing out as the
end approaches) .
 
The RDBD said:
WTF did Barca even buy Coutinho ??
Who was he supposed to be "heir apparent" to ??

Vermin that they are, at least with Madrid you see some of the ROI
that they got from Bale (regardless of how that saga is playing out as the
end approaches) .
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They’ve made some, well, questionable, purchases for big money - think Coutinho, Griezmann, who just don’t seem to fit into the team. The structure behind the scenes seems broken. Lots to fix on the pitch. La Masia doesn’t seem to be what it once was, by all accounts. Messi is the elephant in the room, because the end has to come for him sometime. Something’s rotten in the state of Barça and it’s going to be a big fix.
 
The Huddlefro said:
They’ve made some, well, questionable, purchases for big money - think Coutinho, Griezmann, who just don’t seem to fit into the team. The structure behind the scenes seems broken. Lots to fix on the pitch. La Masia doesn’t seem to be what it once was, by all accounts. Messi is the elephant in the room, because the end has to come for him sometime. Something’s rotten in the state of Barça and it’s going to be a big fix.
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Barca have this weird approach where anyone looking at the team can tell they need to sign replacements for Messi, Suarez and Busquets yet instead they signed a replacement for Rakitic (while keeping the original one) while Griezmann is expected to replace Neymar and Suarez at the same time - yet they also haven't offloaded Dembele, who was supposed to replace Neymar
 
BluefromBridgend said:
Poch, Xavi and Koeman in the frame according to Spanish press.
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Won't be Poch because of Espanyol. Xavi turned it down last time. Koeman would make a lot of sense but the current Netherlands team are pretty strong and you'd think he might want a tilt at the Euros next summer with them before taking on Barca.
 
The Huddlefro said:
Won't be Poch because of Espanyol. Xavi turned it down last time. Koeman would make a lot of sense but the current Netherlands team are pretty strong and you'd think he might want a tilt at the Euros next summer with them before taking on Barca.
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Pochettino recently walked back his comment that he'd rather live on a farm than manage Barca and has supposedly met up with them.
 
PleaseNotPoll said:
Pochettino recently walked back his comment that he'd rather live on a farm than manage Barca and has supposedly met up with them.
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That’s interesting...well he is the man for a rebuild after all and he’d have a task on his hands there that’s for sure.
 
The Huddlefro said:
That’s interesting...well he is the man for a rebuild after all and he’d have a task on his hands there that’s for sure.
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I think that they need somebody with a strong hand, but that also has the approval of their big names.
They clearly didn't give a **** yesterday and that's an awful position for any manager to be in.
It's a massive job, but it's also a really tough one right now.
 
PleaseNotPoll said:
I think that they need somebody with a strong hand, but that also has the approval of their big names.
They clearly didn't give a **** yesterday and that's an awful position for any manager to be in.
It's a massive job, but it's also a really tough one right now.
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The tough one is Messi. Because he’ll be there as long as he wants to be. No manager will walk in and show him the door and the chairman who hires a manager to do that will take a metaphorical bullet. You can make the case for consigning Pique, Suarez and Busquets to the subs bench at this stage, to be fair, which is what might need to be done. Trouble is that their defence is all at sea as it is, they just need a major, major rebuild.
 
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