{"id":382045,"date":"2022-01-06T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/?p=382045"},"modified":"2022-01-06T07:53:41","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T07:53:41","slug":"phillips-wowed-by-new-update-on-aston-villa-pursuit-of-brilliant-coutinho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/phillips-wowed-by-new-update-on-aston-villa-pursuit-of-brilliant-coutinho\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillips ‘wowed’ by new update on Aston Villa pursuit of ‘brilliant’ Coutinho"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kevin Phillips has heaped praise on Barcelona midfielder Philippe Coutinho as Aston Villa look to win the race to his signature. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider<\/strong>, the ex-Claret and Blue said the 29-year-old is “brilliant” on the ball but raised concerns about his defensive capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A source has told Football Insider <\/strong>(6 January) that Villa are in pole position to sign Coutinho ahead of Arsenal and could strike a deal later this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

According to Sky Sports<\/a> (5 January), the Brazilian playmaker is keen on a return to England to join an ambitious club where he will play regularly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attacking midfielder has struggled in Spain since sealing a \u00a3146million move from Liverpool to Barcelona in January 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked by for his assessment of Coutinho’s credentials, Phillips told Football Insider<\/strong>‘s Dylan Childs: “I’d have my doubts if he came back. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He undoubtedly has immense quality but the Premier League is quicker are more physical than La Liga and he is a few years older now. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What position would he play in because at Liverpool he was a luxury player? Managers want all 11 players to defend these days. Can he do that? It would be a concern for me. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“On his day though, wow, what a player. On the ball he is brilliant. In that sense he could be a great signing for someone.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Coutinho has made 16 appearances across all competitions this season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has 18 months left on his contract at the Nou Camp. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other news, a finance guru has claimed Sawiris has used ‘personal connections’ to strike Aston Villa deal after Africa news<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin Phillips has heaped praise on Barcelona midfielder Philippe Coutinho as Aston Villa look to win the race to his signature. Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Claret and Blue said the 29-year-old is “brilliant” on the ball but raised concerns about his defensive capabilities. A source has told Football Insider (6 January) that Villa …<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":381358,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverart":"\"\"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","_grv_disable_ads":false,"grv_featured_categories":""},"categories":[114,5582,7,4],"tags":[3,191],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382045"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382045"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382057,"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382045\/revisions\/382057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}