Coutinho, the third striker - La Provincia
Ronald Koeman changed the game system against Bayern For two reasons. It is not known in what order. One was voluntary, in his perspective that Bayern could cause a rift similar to 2-8 under the thesis - finding? - that this Barça it's worse than the one who took it, and programmed a conservative team. The other reason was forced by injuries. He piled up defenders and midfielders because he had a lot of; he lined up just two forwards because he only had two for a tough clash: Memphis Depay and Luuk de Jong.
Now he has three forwards and will play with three. Philippe Coutinho is the third.
The Brazilian was already available on Tuesday at the Champions -The young Yusuf Demir, who arrived this summer from Austria, was also eligible to be aligned, but Coutinho's was the first call-up in nine months. He was going to reappear since his farewell on December 29, 2020 against Eibar. An unfortunate night in which everything went wrong: a draw against a lesser rival, Braithwaite missed a penalty and Coutinho, who replaced Pjanic in the 65th minute, could not even finish the game. He limped off, aching in his left knee. Four days later he was operated. From a tear of the external meniscus. The same injury that had separated Ansu Fati a month and a half earlier.
Coutinho has already returned. It will not complete the 90 minutes, however. But today he is Barça's third striker and allows Koeman to recover "the basic 4-3-3" against him. grenade, forced by the need to win immediately, to improve the game, to repair the image in front of the fans and by the lesser entity of the opponent compared to Bayern. Despite the fact that the Andalusian triumph in April (1-2) ruined Barça's options in the League.
Koeman's confidence
Coutinho continues at Barça at the will of Koeman, who trusts him. He scored three goals and gave two assists in the 14 games he played. He has 23 goals and 14 assists in the three seasons he has dressed as a Barça player, not counting his loan to Bayern.
The team is not going to dispense with the Brazilian's talent while Bratihwaite, recently operated, is still out; Kun Agüero who works alone with a physiotherapist; Dembélé, still in the gym and Messiah Ansu Fati, who returns little by little from his long journey, longer than Felipe's.