#1 Barcelona
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Often a benchmark for attractive football, Barcelona have struggled this season to replicate the dominance of Pep Guardiola’s era. Much of that dominance was down to Barcelona’s impeccable midfield trio of Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and Sergio Busquets. Now they’re limited to players of half the quality.
Andre Gomes signed for £30m last summer but his performances have failed to justify his price tag. Former maestro Iniesta is now on the wrong side of thirty and past his peak, so now more than ever a creative midfielder is needed to help Barcelona keep up with their Madrid rivals.
With the best attack in the world up front, it doesn’t take much midfield creativity to feed them chances, they create chances for themselves. What Messi, Suarez and Neymar need is a competent creative midfielder who can support their attacking flair through making runs and converting chances they’re not able to.
Coutinho is a player that creates as much as he scores. In 29 league games, he’s created 58 chances whilst scoring 10 himself. He’s the perfect complement player for Barcelona and his exceptional ball control, passing technique and dribbling would fit into the footballing philosophy of the club.
