Patience is no longer a virtue with Philippe Coutinho

Ernesto Valverde continues to show patience with Philippe Coutinho but his poor performances are hurting Barcelona.

Philippe Coutinho had yet another quiet game in the Catalan Derby against Espanyol. With Ousmane Dembele still out injured, the Brazilian was once again given the nod in the left-side of Barcelona’s attack and, as mentioned, had a lackluster performance. Ernesto Valverde’s insistence with playing the Brazilian has not resulted in the player improving his game and that insistence needs to stop.

With the introduction of Malcom in the second half, the team looked much more dynamic going forward and provided the assist for Messi’s second goal. That he has had scarce playing time since scoring against Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey is a head-scratcher considering Malcom has shown more in those scarce minutes than Coutinho. The contrast in the performances of the Brazilians is not lost on the Catalan media who have noticed the same thing.

The fact of the matter is that Coutinho has been given countless opportunities to regain his form and have a positive impact for Barcelona but has failed to do so. Even when Dembele was healthy, Coutinho would get the nod over the Frenchman. Eventually, it did not take Dembele long to overtake Coutinho in the starting line-up and will likely do so once he returns from injury. What’s more worrying now is that Malcom could very well have overtaken him in the depth chart. At the very least it’s given Valverde another choice to make.

His struggles are not lost on Coutinho who has reportedly hinted at potentially leaving Barcelona in the summer. While that scenario is up in the air, Valverde has to decide what to do with him because Barcelona are coming up on a loaded schedule with the games against Manchester United in the Champions League at the forefront. He needs to put his best team out there and at this moment it does not include Coutinho. Whether his struggles has to do with the system or not, he has struggled both playing on the left and in midfield. At this point, the problem might be more mental than physical.

If Barcelona can recuperate enough money on a potential sale and taking into account the club has to sell players in order to finance a deal on Matthijs de Ligt and their reported interest in Antoine Griezmann, Coutinho’s time at Barcelona may well be up.