Courtesy: Sambafoot


Liverpool's Coutinho: Futsal helped me to succeed in football

by Callum Fox

7/4/2013

Liverpool's Philippe Coutinho believes futsal has given him the necessary skills to succeed in English football.

The game, which is extremely popular in his homeland of Brazil, teaches players close ball control as well as short, quick passing and dribbling skills.

"I played futsal from the age of six," Coutinho said. "Then when I was seven I went to Vasco da Gama, I was playing futsal until I was 11 before I moved to the pitch.

"This is where I learned my skills. When you play futsal it is more technical and much quicker.

"The place where you play is much smaller and the pace higher so you need to be a highly technical player to play futsal properly.

"That helped me a lot so wherever I go I try to adapt and learn quickly.

"It is a quicker game here as they always say, quicker than in Brazil or Italy. English football is much more intense. It was not so bad when I went to Italy but when I came over it was quite difficult for me to get going, to get into the rhythm of the game.

"Hopefully, further ahead, I'll be able to get to the same level of my teammates as regards the pace of the game."

While Coutinho is getting used to life on the pitch in England, he has been offered a helping hand from fellow Brazilian Lucas - and others - when it comes to settling in away from the game.

"He has been a huge friend," said Coutinho. "He has been like a father giving me all the information I needed, not only him - those other players who speak Spanish all helped me. Lucas has explained how the club works."





Courtesy: The Telegraph


Philippe Coutinho gives Liverpool's Mersey beat a true South American feel alongside Luis Suarez

The city of Liverpool revels in being a captivating, paradoxical mix of the defiantly parochial and yet proudly cosmopolitan.

by Chris Bascombe

06 Apr 2013

There is a well-established tradition of welcoming visitors from overseas with a broader smile and warmer handshake than those from other parts of this country, one that even extends to its football clubs.

Scour The Kop during Sunday afternoon’s meeting with West Ham and you will find a liberal sprinkling of Spanish, Uruguay and Brazil flags, emblazoned with images of their countrymen who now play in Liverpool red. St George’s Crosses depicting Steven Gerrard, on the other hand, are non-existent.

True to form, when Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge signed in January, it was the diminutive Brazilian who dashed straight into Anfield’s heart, despite the Englishman having the initial impact with three goals in three games.

With Coutinho twinkle-toeing alongside Luis Suarez, Liverpool are delighting to the soundtrack of a South American beat. Whatever else the Brendan Rodgers era holds, their presence ensures it will be pleasing on the eye.

Coutinho has adapted immediately, undermining the inadequate excuse often peddled out that new signings need time to show their class.

He has either scored or created a goal in every fixture he has started. The reason? A virtually flawless technique which, like Suarez, was embedded at an early age in small-sided games.

“I played futsal from the age of six,” said Coutinho. “Then when I was seven I went to (Brazilian club) Vasco Da Gama, I was playing futsal until I was 11 before I moved to the pitch.

“This is where I learned my skills. When you play futsal it is more technical and much quicker.

“The place where you play is much smaller and the pace higher so you need to be a highly technical player to play futsal properly.

“That helped me a lot so wherever I go I try to adapt and learn quickly.

“It is a quicker game here as they always say, quicker than in Brazil or Italy. English football is much more intense. It was not so bad when I went to Italy but when I came over it was quite difficult for me to get going, to get into the rhythm of the game.

“Hopefully, further ahead, I’ll be able to get to the same level of my team-mates as regards the pace of the game.”

It has helped the 20-year-old that he is not a lone traveller. His wife, Aine, has brought her cousins to live nearby, and their two dogs — Will and Mell — ensure the family has settled in the old home of Liverpool’s former Brazilian, Fabio Aurelio, facing leafy Sefton Park.
Alliances in the dressing room and on the pitch help, too, none more so than with Suarez. Already there is talk of them emulating other great Anfield partnerships: Hunt and St John, Dalglish and Rush, Beardsley and Aldridge.

“Yes, I hope so, I hope that happens in future and we achieve great things,” he said. “Suarez is a fantastic player. It is an honour for me to play with him.

“It is so much easier to play alongside a player like him because he is always on the move, he never stays still.
“When you have the ball it is much better for you to have a player like that because you can open the defence much more.

“We always communicate on the pitch in Spanish, he speaks Spanish and I understand it. I spent six months in Spain so can get by quite well with it. It is not only him. The other players are always trying to help me get better.

“There were a few occasions when I was quite slow and Steven Gerrard told me to be much quicker with the ball and to mark the opposition players quicker.

“The manager communicates with me in Spanish and always asks me to come into the middle and try to open the play to the wide areas or go straight on. He’s playing me in the position I like best, on the left, but able to come inside.”

That is the Liverpool Rodgers wants – fluid, inventive and with players always on the move. In Coutinho’s case, having already left Brazil for Italy, a loan spell at Espanyol and now England, he is also aspiring to find a permanent destination. “It’s time for me to settle in one place,” he said.

Liverpool hope he has found it at last.






Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com