Player Focus: Maturing Coutinho Set for Iconic Liverpool Status?

While a Daniel Sturridge hat-trick ultimately sealed all three points for Liverpool at Craven Cottage this weekend, the influence of another January signing should not be undervalued. Many felt that Brazilian 'wonderkid' Philippe Coutinho would take time to acclimatise to the faster and more physical style of football in England than he was used to in Serie A, but if anything the 20 year old looks more comfortable than ever in the Premier League.

The boyish locks were cut off recently and although you can only make so much of a statement through a change of hairstyle, unless you're Djibril Cisse, with it seemed to come a great maturity on Sunday. Coutinho was always deemed a 'pure footballer' whilst at Inter. A player you'd want in a futsal tournament or in the ridiculous realms of FIFA Street but one who still had a lot to learn about the ugly side of the beautiful game.

It is, in fact, his street style of football that allows the trickster to worm his way through challenges with relatively little time on the ball. While he was often forced to make decisions in Italy, where players were more likely to stand off him, those choices are made for him at times as he skips past opponents in the more frantic Premier League.

Against Fulham, however, you saw a player who wanted the ball and was willing to come far deeper for it, springing attacks from the halfway line in the absence of Steven Gerrard. Coutinho came to collect the ball from the centre-backs and either popped a simple pass to a teammate or drove Liverpool forward himself as the key player in transition for the visitors.

A look at the average player positions for the Reds from the match vs Fulham shows that Coutinho's (10) touches actually came far deeper than those of Downing (19), and even Glen Johnson (2). He was more in line with Shelvey and Henderson, drifting left when Downing moved forward, with Lucas the anchorman.

Coutinho may not have flown past players like the fans of the Nerazzurri were used to in brief appearances over this season and last, but he pulled the opposition around, creating more space for the likes of Sturridge to flourish.

The Brazil international has only completed 1.3 successful dribbles per game this season, which is by no means a meagre return but significantly down on an average of 4.4 from his 5 appearances with Inter in the Europa League earlier in the campaign. Coutinho now knows that taking on an opponent is not always the best option but engaging them in a one-on-one situation can also open up channels for teammates to run into.

At Fulham, he cut inside from the left before seeing a shot deflected to the unmarked Daniel Sturridge for the striker's second of the game before playing an exquisite chipped through ball with the outside of his boot to enable his teammate to complete his first hat-trick for the club. Against Newcastle a fortnight before he'd executed a delightful dink between two defenders to set up the same man, and his understanding with both Sturridge and Suarez will have been hugely encouraging to Brendan Rodgers.

His ability to thread the ball through the eye of a needle is one that has been showcased on numerous occasions already this season. The assist at the weekend represented Coutinho's 10th accurate through ball since moving to Liverpool, with an average of 0.83 per game the most of any player in the Premier League. In addition, when only taking his figures in England's top flight into account, of all players to have reached double figures for accurate through balls across Europe's top five leagues, only 4 players have a greater success rate at finding a teammate from through ball attempts (71.4%).

However, it's his passing game that perhaps remains in need of the most work. Although his 86.4% accuracy against Fulham doesn't reflect that opinion, that was his best figure in a Liverpool shirt, with an average of just 73.4% over his 12 league appearances for the Reds. It's a figure that should only improve under the tutelage of Rodgers, a manager famed for his adoration of possession football, and performances such as the one at Craven Cottage suggest that Coutinho is coming round to his manager's way of thinking.

In a creative sense an average of 1.5 key passes per game may not seem overly convincing but the quality of chances that he's laid on have been superb at times. Half of his 18 key passes this season have created clear cut opportunities for teammates, with an average of 0.75 per game in that regard the highest in the Premier League. In turn the youngster has picked up 5 assists already, with 0.42 per game again at the top of the pile in England's top flight this season.

Coutinho is by no means the finished article. As mentioned his pass accuracy has let him down at times and he still needs to become more consistent, but players of his ilk will always be prone to more than the occasional off day. Regardless, the mystery remains as to why Inter felt that one of their finest young players was expendable at what always looked to be an extremely modest fee, believed to be in the region of £8.5m. With Stramaccioni's squad now threadbare due to an unparalleled number of injuries, their decision to let the Brazilian leave seems all the more premature.