Liverpool head to St James’ Park on Monday night, almost certainly a lion’s den bristling with fury and noise. We are probably close to Sunderland in the Geordies shit-list at the moment given the genuinely wild extent that Alexander Isak’s head has been turned. House sold. Training with his former mates at Sociedad as opposed to travelling out to Asia. Refusing to play another minute for the club. Nice one, Alex.
The Reds travelling 170 miles north up there always has me, for some strange reason, thinking of one goal. Darwin’s dramatic injury time winner? No. Divock’s late header to keep us in the title race? No. Steven Gerrard’s 25-yard rocket from the laid-off free kick? Nah.
It’s Phillipe Coutinho’s beauty in an otherwise drab, unmemorable 1-1 draw in October 2017 - ultimately an embodiment of Liverpool in the early stages of that season before they lit the fuse at the turn of the year and rocketed all the way to a date with destiny in Kiev. You might remember a small level of pressure on Jürgen at that point in our resurrection story. That result was the culmination of a truly revolting spell in which we’d lost 5-0 away at Manchester City, drew with Burnley and Sevilla at Anfield, been chucked out of the cup against Leicester and conspired to draw at Spartak Moscow. I wouldn’t have bet a single penny on us reaching a Champions League final after conceding to Joselu that afternoon, let me tell you!
I could and would write about Phillipe Coutinho all day if he wasn’t universally unpopular in these parts. He was my favourite footballer on the planet from the moment Luis Suárez departed to the moment he himself touched down in Barcelona after pulling the bad back card. A majestic player whose ‘Little Magician’ tag was exceptionally fitting.
It’s Coutinho dancing and dazzling, when I think of this fixture. Phil played well that day in Newcastle, though it didn’t even come close to his display the first time he ever faced them, in the 6-0 win at St James’ in April 2013. That day, our no.10 played a pivotal role in two of the goals and operated brilliantly in a central role behind Daniel Sturridge. You could genuinely make a case for that being his greatest performance in Liverpool colours.
So much was that the case that club legend John Aldridge couldn’t contain his excitement in his weekly Liverpool Echo column: “Philippe Coutinho was a little genius on Saturday... he bounced back at St James’ with his best performance for the club and he was my man of the match.”
Towards the end of that season, in Phil’s opening months, there was a genuine clamour for the side to be built around a then-20-year-old Coutinho. Brendan, sensing the spark, gave him license to roam and Coutinho responded with moments of pure invention that belied his age. Rodgers had started the season with a more rigid 4-3-3, but after Coutinho’s arrival in January 2013, he began experimenting with formations that allowed the Brazilian to operate in central pockets of space. Coutinho was often deployed as a No. 10 or an inverted left-sided playmaker, drifting inside to link up with Suárez and Sturridge.
With Coutinho in the side, our tempo increased. Rodgers leaned into quicker transitions and more vertical passing essentially allowing Coutinho to exploit spaces between the lines. That dynamic trio, before Sterling’s breakthrough, were a major threat up front that could stretch defences and create overloads. Though the full diamond midfield setup became more prominent in 2013/14, the seeds were planted in 2013. Rodgers began to show flexibility, occasionally shifting between 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 depending on the opponent, always ensuring Coutinho had room to operate in central areas where he could influence the game most.
We know what happened next; Liverpool entered a period of soul-searching, trying to reassemble an attacking identity that had been so singularly defined by the Suarez’s chaos and brilliance. In that vacuum, Phil became the creative nucleus. Our rebuild was painfully uneven at first. Coutinho was often left to carry the creative burden alone and whist his performances remained dazzling in flashes, the supporting cast lacked cohesion and, frankly, ability. It wasn’t until Klopp’s arrival that the club’s identity began to crystallise: pressing, verticality, and intensity. Coutinho adapted to become more than just a No. 10: he dropped deeper, dictated tempo, and added defensive bite. By 2016–17, he was arguably at his peak, scoring, assisting, and orchestrating everything with a new-found maturity that made him one of Europe’s most coveted midfielders.
Even after the official transfer request and questionable (to say the least) antics, Coutinho ultimately returned to the fold to be one of the leading attacking midfielders in not only England but the entirety of Europe in the first half of 2017/18.
Why bring up Mr Bad Back in 2025 then? Outside of nostalgia being the world’s greatest drug, there’s the small matter of a certain Florian Wirtz, another terrifically gifted playmaker, walking out on that turf for his first taste of an away game in England. Newcastle away, even without the manic recent context, would definitely serve as a splendid location for that spark to catch fire.
Florian showed flashes, but ultimately faded into the background against Bournemouth. The game’s pace outran him and he was muscled off the ball more than once. It’s an adjustment that ought to be quick for the German given the physical dominance of Newcastle’s midfield, as proven by the Carabao Cup final, where the trio ran all over us. Essentially, if lightning strikes twice to what I wrote in my verdict of that defeat here, then Liverpool will return home on the wrong side of the scoreline: “ Outran and outbarged by a ferocious and in-your-face Newcastle. Joelinton covered every single blade of grass to suffocate Liverpool and press them to death. Too much Joelinton, too much Dan Burn. Liverpool’s doing!”
There’s no clear-cut answer to how best to platform Wirtz in the North East and that’s kind of the beauty of it. His talent speaks for itself and there are genuinely a number of ways to let it shine. Let’s take a look…
