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‘He can get fitter and stronger’: Gerrard says the best is yet to come from one Aston Villa player
Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard has waxed lyrical about Philippe Coutinho following his instant impact at Villa Park.
In January, the Villans signed the Barcelona man on loan with a £33million option to buy in the summer.
Coutinho has hit the ground running at Villa Park, registering two goals and two assists from three Premier League games.
On Wednesday, the Brazil international delivered an outstanding display for Villa against Leeds.
He involved in all of his side’s three goals as Gerrard’s charges played out a 3-3 draw against the Whites.
Villa fell behind to Dan James’ eighth-minute goal against the run of play, but Coutinho equalised on the half-hour mark.
Eight minutes later, Coutinho picked out Aaron Ramsey with a wonderful slide-rule pass, and the Villa youngster duly slotted home.
The Barcelona loanee then combined with Ramsey two minutes before the break, picking out his teammate on the right.
The 20-year-old let rip with an unstoppable effort into the top-right corner to put Villa 3-1 ahead.
Coutinho eventually had to come off due to cramp as Leeds pegged the Villans back to 3-3.
“He feels this is his stage again”
However, he should be fit to face Newcastle on Sunday, and Gerrard spoke of how he can become even better.
“His vision is a major strength to him as a player,” quotes the Villa boss as saying. “He’s lovely on the eye to watch, his technical ability is high level.
“I don’t think I have to go on about Phil Coutinho the player, you just have to watch and admire the class with which he goes about it.
“For me, the key thing was to get him up to speed from a physical point of view and we’re still working on that. He can get fitter and stronger and he will do with more training and games.
“Then it was about getting him enjoying his football again, being around the boys, smiling and looking forward to playing. You can see in his performance that he feels this is his stage again.
“He was desperate to come back to the Premier League and we’ve given him everything he needs to go out there and perform.
“For me, the good thing about Phil is he’s so humble, so level-headed, he’s so grounded that you wouldn’t think you were dealing with a world class star if you spoke to him day-to-day.
“He’s just a great human being.”