A look at Philippe Coutinho’s match-winning substitute appearance for Liverpool against Stoke

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Liverpool came from behind to beat Stoke City which has helped them establish themselves in the top four ahead of their last six matches of the season. They remain the team that Arsenal and Manchester United will both be hunting down, but they have a good cushion and points on the board are better than games in hand at this stage of the campaign.

Jurgen Klopp made an eyebrow-raising decision to start with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ben Woodburn. Although he deserves credit for giving youth a chance, it isn’t the right time for it now and after falling to a first-half lead, he made the required changes to ensure the game wasn’t lost.

At half-time, he chose to bring on Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino, arguably his two best players and they managed to get a goal each to win the points. It will be the former who takes the headlines as he is finally finding his best form after returning from injury.

At the beginning of the campaign, he was arguably the best player in the league and he is now reaching those heights once again. He now has nine goals and six assists for the season, which is a good return considering the struggles he has had with injury.

This season, Coutinho has shown impressive goal-scoring instincts in the final third as he often takes up the right positions to cause problems for the other team. That was what led to the equaliser against Stoke, as he was in the right place at the right time when the loose ball dropped to him. It was then a composed finish from the Brazilian to get his side back on level terms. Although it won’t go down as one of his best, it was an important goal and one that could be worth even more come the end of the season.

Throughout his time on the pitch, he was a constant threat to the Stoke City goal. He attempted three shots during the match and could have scored more than one on another day. However, it was his vision and distribution that impacted the game most.

In the first half, Liverpool struggled to create clear-cut opportunities as they didn’t have a player on the pitch capable of playing incisive forward passes to open spaces in the final third. Coutinho is that player for them and he made three key passes in the second half. This was more than anyone else on the pitch and he only played for 45 minutes.

It takes a special player to recover from being left out of the starting eleven to then come on and deliver a match-winning performance, especially at this stage of the season. Although Coutinho won’t be in the running for the PFA Player of the Year award, he is clearly now one of the stars of the Premier League.

It has taken him a few weeks to get back to his influential best and the Brazilian could be set for an explosive end to the season. It comes at the perfect time for Liverpool as they were stuttering, but if he continues to play like this, the Reds will finish in the top four.

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