Coutinho out for 6 weeks :'(

So, with our creative force injured for 6 weeks with shoulder surgery.... who do you think will replace him...

Gerrard ? Suarez ?

 Huge blow. Think time for Luis Alberto to step up, until the other Luis serves his ban.

             Gerrard      Lucas
Henderson      Alberto      Moses
                   Sturridge.

With Suarez (one thing we need for sure now is him playing through the middle as I see a worrying lack of creativity there):
            Gerrard    Lucas
Henderson                      Moses
                   Suarez
                 Sturridge.

6 weeks? Reports last night were saying 10 days.
If that's true then it's bad news. Maybe a chance for Alberto to make his break through, will BR have enough faith in him though?
I'd say we'll see Suarez given a free role,  dropping deep to pick up the ball and playing in Sturridge and Moses.

From Sly sports website :

Liverpool have confirmed Philippe Coutinho will be ruled out until late October following the shoulder injury he sustained in the 2-2 draw against Swansea on Monday night.

The Brazilian was replaced by Iago Aspas after 55 minutes at the Liberty Stadium after falling awkwardly following a challenge from Swansea skipper Ashley Williams.

The 21-year-old was seen leaving the stadium with his arm in a sling and after the game and Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers had revealed Coutinho "was very sore in the changing room."

On Monday, Rodgers said he hoped Coutinho's injury was nothing more than bruising but it is now clear the injury was worse than originally feared.

Following an assessment of the injury by Liverpool's medical staff it has been decided that Coutinho will now have surgical stabilisation on the AC joint in his shoulder.

The injury will stretch the Liverpool squad even further after a recent spate of injuries.

Daniel Agger sustained a rib injury forcing him to miss the game at Swansea and defensive partner Kolo Toure has only just returned to action following a groin problem.

Fellow defenders Glen Johnson, Aly Cissokho and Sebastian Coates are all out injured for Liverpool, while midfielder Joe Allen is currently sidelined and Daniel Sturridge has only just come back from a thigh injury.

Huge blow. Think time for Luis Alberto to step up, until the other Luis serves his ban.

             Gerrard      Lucas
Henderson      Alberto      Moses
                   Sturridge.

With Suarez (one thing we need for sure now is him playing through the middle as I see a worrying lack of creativity there):
            Gerrard    Lucas
Henderson                      Moses
                   Suarez
                 Sturridge.

I don't think Suarez behind Sturridge will work well for us. Especially with Gerrard and Lucas sitting back. Suarez is a striker and he has big tendency to dribble past players and tries tricks. Suarez coming deep and trying these tricks near the mid way would be suicidal. It has to be either Alberto or Henderson. While Henderson is not that creative, we will still be creating chances with Sturrdge, Suarez and Moses as the attackers. Henderson in the middle will help to rectify this 2nd half problem imo.

F**k off Ashley Williams you c**t.

That's a real kick in the pants for phillipe, feel sorry for the lad, not sure if Luis Alberto is ready for such a pivotal role, for there are 2-3 options.....

1, push Gerrard forward and replace him with Ilori,until Suarez returns

2, bring Hendo in and have Sterling/Ibe on the right,

3, gamble with Alberto until Suarez comes back

I like the idea of Gerrard playing the 10 role for a couple of games, against Saints followed by Makems, slightly lesser opposition so should not be to taxing for our skip,
Thoughts please

YNWA

F**k off Ashley Williams you c**t.

Was a bit of a cynical challenge from Williams but its the way Coutinho landed that did the damage just hope phillipe returns asap,
Williams can't be a c**t, they are useful !

YNWA

Williams is most definitely a c**t, no need for him to leave his leg in! After the 50/50 with Gerrard, he barged into him trying to act like a hard man, somebody needs to give that boy a slap!

Injuries always will happen,  especially to talented fragile players.  As a top team we have to have good depth. I think we have that. It's 6 weeks, not 6 months so lets just be happy Suarez can plug the gap until Coutinho is back!

Bollocks this is a blow,but with goofy coming back it will soften the blow a bit.

A real blow, he's such a creative player, good job Suarez is back after Saturday's game. Get better soon Coutinho.

1 game with Alberto in the 10 and then Suarez.

F***ing Ashley Williams. How could you do that to poor little Philippe? Look at his adorable little face.


The dog is cute too.

The one player we couldn't really afford to get injured. Very little in the way of cover for him.

There's no doubt we'll miss him, but hopefully the lads can step up and keep us up there 'til he comes back.
I do feel that referees need to protect these young technical players more. We all love watching this type of player no matter who they play for, but players like Ashley Williams will target this kind of player because they can. Referees need to clamp down early, book them and hopefully that may make them think twice before they make another reckless tackle. Williams got away with too much on Monday night, if the ref had dealt with him earlier, we may not have lost Phillipe for 6 weeks!
Get well soon Phillipe, we need you.

Suarez will come in after next game but we sure will miss him.

Yeah, Ashley Williams did get away with too much. That said, Suarez is just about to come back and we have about two weeks off with the international break so, unless that doesn't give us any injuries, fingers crossed we'll be able to cope just fine.

I think this goes to show why bringing in a 'marquee' signing was important. No, not Sakho but someone like Nick,  Costa or Willian. I know I'm living in the past, but we could'v. Surely had signed one of them if the money was right.

Yes Coutinho will be sidelined for 6 weeks but we won't be seeing him back in the startling line up for quite a while longer. Hope he gets well soon!

We can quite safely say the team for the next 2 months will be

                                                   Minolet
                             
                               Johnson      Agger    Skrtel      Enrique


                                        Gerrard   Lucas   Henderson

                               Moses                                        Suarez

                                                    Sturridge

we lost a little control once Coutinho went off Swans so hopefully it doesn't affect us too much :-(

Anyone want to create me a new picture as I haven't been online for ages! think the gerrard and torres past its sell by date

Big big blow, that tackle from Ashley Williams could've killed Coutinho. Time for Alberto to show us what he's got!

Big big blow, that tackle from Ashley Williams could've killed Coutinho. Time for Alberto to show us what he's got!

What's done is done but if reciprical action isn't taken against that c**t Williams something is drastically wrong in football, or the controlling body of the game.

F**k, we all know that don't we.

I'll get stick but to be honest I don't see anying that wrong in the tackle.

Yes, it's a bad tackle and the player left his foot out to cause a foul. But in the same spot, if a player of Coutinho's ability got through our defence I'd expect someone in our team to stick up a leg to cause a foul then to let them get inside the box.

Just very unfortunate that this has caused his injury.

Get well soon, we need to back as soon as possible.

It's a massive blow and it leaves us short for the weekend. A few are suggesting Alberto but I haven't seen anything from him to suggest he can fill the gap, he does not look any sort of a threat to run with the ball and I can't see him being up to it if I'm honest. I would prefer to see Henderson move inside and then give Sterling or Ibe a run out from the right hand side. Although I've got a sneaking suspicion we will probably see Aspas again.

If we had kept the lad I would have simply liked to have seen young Suso slot in the to be honest, he is a better bet than either of our two new Spaniards and I find myself scratching my head every time I think about his loan move.

Alberto to step in maybe? Or Stevie to push up?

Hell be a loss no matter what only thing is the fixture list isnt too daunting in those 6 weeks.

By the way I doubt the FA will be looking at the tackle so Id advise next time we meet that somebody does Williams big time the piece of sh*t

 It is sad news that we have lost Coutinho for 6 weeks,without a doubt we always look likely to win with him in the side.Just got to hope that the return of Luis Suarez to the team makes up for the loss of young Coutinho.

I'll get stick but to be honest I don't see anying that wrong in the tackle.

Yes, it's a bad tackle and the player left his foot out to cause a foul. But in the same spot, if a player of Coutinho's ability got through our defence I'd expect someone in our team to stick up a leg to cause a foul then to let them get inside the box.

Just very unfortunate that this has caused his injury.

Get well soon, we need to back as soon as possible.

Leave it out Tom, the ball had long gone and the height of his boots was ridiculous.
Isn't there a direction that if the boots are above waist height the official should take action?
Philippe probably had stud marks in his chest.
Beside the fact it was obvious Williams was intimidating players from the off in order to provoke a reaction or do them some damage, the ref was as much faulted with those decisions as he was with the incident that forced Coutinho off.

Leave it out Tom, the ball had long gone and the height of his boots was ridiculous.
Isn't there a direction that if the boots are above waist height the official should take action?
Philippe probably had stud marks in his chest.
Beside the fact it was obvious Williams was intimidating players from the off in order to provoke a reaction or do them some damage, the ref was as much faulted with those decisions as he was with the incident that forced Coutinho off.

Totally agree mate, said at the time he should have been sent off for that. It was not a 'professional foul' it was an assault, if Coutinho handn't hurdled his leg he'd have had a kick straight to his midriff, absolute disgrace of a challenge.

Moments before he had a strong 50/50 with Gerrard where he acted like the big man and the ref should have pulled them then, after he didn't he should have shown red for a shocking challenge. Players like Coutinho need protection from bruisers, I've no problem with a hard challenge, like the 50/50 Johnson got injured with, but when there's no attempt to win the ball, that's when it should be dealt with harshly.

These lads shouldn't fearing injury just because they beat a man.

Totally agree mate, said at the time he should have been sent off for that. It was not a 'professional foul' it was an assault, if Coutinho handn't hurdled his leg he'd have had a kick straight to his midriff, absolute disgrace of a challenge.

Is correct Luke, as posted previously if someone did that on the street they would get done for ABH. If they were a professional athlete wearing studded boots the implications would be a lot more serious, on the field of play apparently negates the law of the land - that might seem an over-reaction yet it is factually correct.

Hopefully this will put an end to the constant idiotic commentary of "We don't need (x-player), we've already got _______ to play that position."

Easy to see how everything can go south in a heartbeat.  You can't just hope that all your top players are going to be able to play the entire season.  We've found out in recent years what the reality is.  Suspensions, injuries, or just poor form--it's so much better to have two top quality players at each position, not only for competition but in case one of them, for whatever reason, is out.

Now Coutinho is going to be out for a month and we don't have one single proven attacking midfielder to step in.  Anyone we put in there it's going to be out of their natural position.  The closest like-for-like we have right now is... Suso.  And he's not even here anymore.

People scoffing over the summer at the idea of Eriksen or Banega etc, "because we've already got Coutinho." 

Well.  Now we don't have Coutinho.

How nice would it be to have said "Coutinho's out, no problem, _______ can slot in, it's his best position anyway"?

Oh well.

Now Coutinho is going to be out for a month and we don't have one single proven attacking midfielder to step in.  Anyone we put in there it's going to be out of their natural position.  The closest like-for-like we have right now is... Suso.  And he's not even here anymore.

Coutinho wasn't proven before he played for us, either. Luis Alberto should be put into the exact same position. His passing level isn't on par with Coutinho's but he showed a lot of promise with his recent U21s performance, linking up well with Sterling and bagging a somewhat lucky hat-trick.

Obviously a massive blow for us. He creates so many chances upfront, plays these little one-twos etc.
Hopefully we still can cope without him, there's Suarez coming back, good chance for others to step up.

Massive blow this is .Most of our success and creativity has come from him

BUT

We have Suarez coming back who will be very hungry to play
Also think Moses will have to step up big time now to fill the void left by Coutinho in the creativity department

Man, didn't realise he would be out for so long.
This guy promised much last season, and has delivered at the start of this one.
BIG loss.
Moses I guess will come in for him, decent start v Swansea.
Think we'll miss Couts creativity though, don't think we've another player quite like him ... plus, I is just gonna miss watching the guy play.
Get well soon dude!

On a bit of a downer there federer!

Look, in 2 games Suarez is back and last time I checked he was quite a good player.
A front 3 of Suarez, Sturridge and Moses looks alright to me.
Basically, its just a question of who comes in for the Southampton game.
Pretty sure it'll be Sterling, who yeah isn't quite up there with Suarez and Coutinho, but is still a good player.

The players we really have little cover for are Gerrard and Sturridge ( and then Suarez).
Coutinho being out is a blow, but we do have decent alternatives, as long as those 3 above don't get injured.

Gutting to lose Coutinho for up to six weeks. Such a clever little footballer.

For what it's worth, I think Suarez coming back will help to soften the blow slightly. Obviously, it will get hard to get past Suarez's jackassery (for lack of a better term), but we're undoubtedly a better team with Luis in the side.

Gerrard    Lucas
Hendo       Suarez          Moses
Sturridge

And when Coutinho returns

Gerrard     Lucas
Suarez      Coutinho      Moses
Sturridge