Player Focus: Philippe Coutinho (Espanyol - On Loan)

As the end of the January transfer window approached it was no surprise that one of the few clubs in Spain to make a move were Espanyol.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side had surpassed expectations to enter the New Year in fifth place, but a gruelling January calendar in which they played eight times in 23 days thanks to their participation in the Copa del Rey left them without a recognised striker as both Sergio Garcia and Alvaro Vasquez succumbed to muscle injuries.

A range of makeshift options were used, including academy graduate Thievy Bifouma and more natural wide players Rui Fonte and Vladimir Weiss, before the eve of the transfer window’s closure saw former Almeria striker Kalu Uche arrive along with Inter Milan starlet Philippe Coutinho on-loan.

It says everything about Espanyol’s early season struggle for goals that both new arrivals, with four goals in eight and nine games respectively, are only one off the Los Pericos top-scorer Garcia who has taken 18 appearances to get his five goals.

However, even considering Uche’s contribution, it has been Coutinho who has really caught the eye. It is telling that last midweek when Pochettino rested a number of his normal starters for the game against Real Betis, as it came in the middle of three matches in six days, Coutinho started. His importance to the team is already so fundamental that he was one of only three outfield players to start all three, and the other two were full-backs.

That importance is reflected in his statistics, the 19-year-old has the highest average rating of any Espanyol player at 7.18, the 20th highest rating in the league and more impressively the fifth best of any player outside the top two.

Coutinho’s direct style also seems him join Antoine Griezmann as the only non-striker in the top 10 for number of shots per game, at 2.7, and he is in illustrious company alongside Andres Iniesta as tied-fifth for number of dribbles per game, at 2.1.

Why, then, did Inter let a player of such obvious talent go on loan for the final six months of the campaign, particularly given their own predicament at the moment? That question becomes even more intriguing when you notice that in the five league games Coutinho was involved in for Inter this season, the Nerazzurri won all five; five of only 12 games they have won all season.

Well the answer is that even in his short spell in the Catalan capital the former Vasco de Gama man has shown signs of his need to improve his decision making, especially when to pass rather than go it alone.

He only has one assist in his nine games in an Espanyol shirt and even that came with a diving header to Hector Moreno to secure the win against Racing Santander following a scrappy corner, not what could be described as his natural game.

His 1.8 turnovers per game are also amongst the top 20 in the league and for a wide player his return of 0.1 accurate crosses per game is pretty poor.

Judging on crosses may be slightly harsh as he has also played some of the time in a more central role, but even here his number of key passes a game, at 0.8, languishes around the top 100 mark.

However, albeit on a very small sample size given he only played 249 minutes of league football for Inter in the first-half of the season, two trends from his performances with Espanyol do stick out as being drastically different from those in Italy.

The first is he is simply more involved in the play with 34 passes compared to an average of 22 with Inter. This is relatively understandable given his role as a bit-part player in Milan compared to his more senior status in the Espanyol side.

However, the other is a more interesting statistic that may point to a change in attitude to work harder without the ball. His averages of 1.8 tackles and interceptions per game respectively in Spain are drastically higher than the 1.2 and 0.4 recorded from earlier in the season.

From the fan’s perspective Coutinho is a joy to watch, his unpredictability is part of his excitement. Yet should he continue to harness a greater work ethic and mature in his distribution of the ball, his teammates and manager will value him even more.

The Brazilian international may provide just enough firepower to launch Espanyol into Europe next season, but should he continue to improve his future is most likely to be as a major part of the rebuilding job in the blue half of Milan.