FC Barcelona vs Rayo Vallecano: Hits and Flops | LaLiga 2018-19

#3 Flop: Philippe Coutinho

Underwhelming yet again: Philippe Coutinho

It seems like whenever Coutinho is playing for Barcelona, he is doing so to get on the flop list. Why Phil? It hurts to see such a huge talent like Phil Coutinho failing to do what is expected of him at Barcelona, but that is what the pressure at Barcelona is.

Coutinho wasn't exactly bad yesterday but it isn't about being bad at Barcelona, it is about how good? For all we know, he still looks very confused about his position, doesn't know where to start, doesn't know how to operate in the half-space. He takes the ball, dribbles into a defender, gets it into his right foot, looks to shoot and decides against it, squares the ball to Arturo Vidal. This is what he did in the first half yesterday.

There is no element of creativity or risk involved whatsoever and there is not telepathy with him and any other player like there is better Messi-Suarez, Semedo-Dembele, Messi-Alba etc. Above everything, he had such a great chance to put Barcelona into the lead and he helped the ball into Dimitrievski's hands with a rather weak shot.

Coutinho is showing all signs of a player who is lost of confidence, can he recover from this slump, ever?