Comparing Philippe Coutinho's Role for Liverpool with His Role for Brazil

Philippe Coutinho embarks on duty with Tite's Brazil squad in November, looking to carry his exceptional form with Liverpool on to the international stage and help his nation secure qualification for the FIFA World Cup in Russia in 2018.

Brazil play at home against Argentina (November 10) and away to Peru (November 16), with Coutinho joined by his Reds colleague and attacking partner Roberto Firmino, who is enjoying his own rise to prominence following the respective appointments of Jurgen Klopp, for club, and Tite, for country.

Also among their number are Chelsea winger Willian, Barcelona star Neymar Jr. and soon-to-be Manchester City forward Gabriel Jesus, who will join the Premier League challengers from Palmeiras in January, after the two clubs agreed a deal worth an initial £27 million in August.

Brazil's Premier League Representatives

• Willian (Chelsea)
• Fernandinho (Manchester City)
• Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool)
• Roberto Firmino (Liverpool)
• Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City, joins 2017)

One of just five players from the Premier League to be named in Tite's squad, Coutinho is flying the flag for the English top flight in South America and quickly garnering a reputation as a star in his homeland.

But how does Coutinho's role for Liverpool compare to that he is expected to play under Tite for Brazil, and is he likely to reach the same level of importance for his national team as he has for Klopp’s Reds on Merseyside?

Here, we assess how Coutinho has been performing for Liverpool in 2016/17 so far and look at his developing role for Brazil based on recent outings—charting the progress of a player who, at 24, is still yet to hit his peak, but is reaching a new plateau as key man for both club and, soon, country.

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"I love this player. Who doesn’t love Phil Coutinho?" Klopp asked reporters in November of last year, less than a month after his appointment as Liverpool manager. "I don’t expect all-day perfection. I expect you to work and try to get better every day. That is what Phil is doing."

When Klopp arrived on Merseyside, Coutinho was already over two-and-a-half years into his Reds career, having made the £8.5 million move from Inter Milan at the end of the January transfer window in 2013.

The German acknowledged that this was a special talent, and one capable of lifting supporters off their seats; but in highlighting the work that Coutinho still needed to do in order to develop further, Klopp stressed that the young Brazilian was still a work in progress.

One year later, and Coutinho is regularly touted as one of the finest talents in the Premier League.

This comes from his team-mates—with Emre Can telling Sky Sports he had "not seen a player like him in my career" and Dejan Lovren hailing him as "the best player in the league at the moment"—to journalists, with Goal’s Melissa Reddy comparing him favourably with the likes of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard.

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"The futsal aficionado who grew up in Rio de Janeiro's North Zone—in the shadow of the Maracana—has been the complete package," Reddy wrote at the end of October. "A goalscorer, provider, puppet-master, battler, the player to force matters and make the difference."

Here, Reddy encapsulates Coutinho’s role for Liverpool: a fluid, interchangeable duty that sees him serve as both creative inspiration and one of Klopp’s key defensive outlets from the front.

This season, Klopp has regularly fielded Coutinho on the left-hand side of a forward three in his new 4-3-3 formation, but as his 83 touches in November’s 6-1 win over Watford at Anfield proves, he is far from the traditional byline-driving winger.

Coutinho regularly drifts inside to influence play, with both Firmino and right winger Sadio Mane switching roles in a dazzling attacking setup that has troubled the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Leicester City already this season.

Against Watford, Coutinho touched the ball inside the penalty area on nine occasions, just four fewer than Firmino (13), despite the former 1899 Hoffenheim man operating as Klopp’s nominal No. 9.

Having tallied six goals and six assists in 12 games in all competitions, Coutinho’s remit is spread between finishing chances and creating them for others, with his combined total (12) more than any other Liverpool player.

Julian Finney/Getty Images

He has averaged more key passes per 90 minutes in the Premier League (3.2) than any of his team-mates to play five or more games, while he has also averaged the most successful dribbles (3.1)—but, crucially, he has also contributed significantly to Liverpool’s pressing game.

Of Klopp’s regular forward three, Coutinho has averaged the same number of successful tackles per 90 as Mane (1.7), while he has averaged the same number of interceptions per 90 as Firmino (0.9), and this is a key aspect of his successful rise from part-time star to full-time inspiration under Klopp.

"He's now 24, his work rate is outstanding. That's how it is. You can't be a genius every day," Klopp told reporters after Coutinho’s all-round brilliance fuelled September’s 4-2 win over Crystal Palace.

This is something that Brazil have been working to achieve in recent years, moving away from the flair-based Samba stylings of the early 2000s to complement this with a more combative approach—and after a disappointing spell under Dunga, Coutinho will be hoping to translate his club form to Tite’s squad.

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"Since 2001, except for Carlos Alberto Parreira, all Brazil coaches have been from the Rio Grande do Sul state—Dunga, Mano Menezes, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Dunga again and now Tite. Most of them were raised in a football school known for its defensive-minded style of play and pragmatic thinking," FourFourTwo’s Marcus Alves explained on Tite’s appointment as Brazil manager in June.

"Tite’s not exactly a follower of this mentality. He's also not the man who will be responsible for the revival of the beautiful game."

Alves places Tite at a modern midpoint between defence-heavy pragmatism and a more adventurous attacking football, and with this suiting Coutinho perfectly, it is no surprise he has been afforded considerable game time since the 55-year-old’s arrival.

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After making his debut for his country in a 3-0 friendly win away to Iran in 2010, Coutinho spent four years in international obscurity, but despite being regularly called up to the Brazil squad following his exploits in Liverpool’s title-challenging season in 2013/14, he never quite settled.

Before the Copa America Centenario in the summer, Coutinho had played the full 90 minutes of a game for Brazil on just one occasion, when Dunga’s side crashed out of the previous year’s tournament in the quarter-finals to Paraguay.

Their time in North America in June was similarly disappointing, failing to advance beyond the group stage, but Coutinho played every minute of every game for Brazil, scoring a hat-trick in a 7-1 victory over Haiti:

• GOAL, 14 minutes: Picks up the ball from the left, drives inside to the 20-yard mark and fires a powerful effort past Johnny Placide.
• GOAL, 29 minutes: Makes a darting run to the back post and taps home Jonas' cross-goal pass.
• GOAL, 90+2 minutes: Cuts inside from wide left, shifts onto his right foot and curls a 25-yard strike into the far side of the net.
  

This served as something of a watershed moment for Coutinho, with Dunga telling reporters that "we talked with him for him to be the Coutinho of Liverpool, dictate play, lead and take risks"—each of the goals he scored against Haiti have been replicated in red this season.

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But despite this progress, it took a pair of impressive cameo displays in the September international break to convince Tite that this was possible:

• Ecuador 0-3 Brazil, September 1: Replaced Willian (61 minutes) with the score at 0-0, played a hand in goals for Neymar and Jesus (two).
• Brazil 2-1 Colombia, September 7: Replaced Willian (65 minutes) with the score at 1-1, assisted Neymar’s winner.

As a result, Coutinho moved ahead of Willian in Tite’s plans, as he explained at a press conference ahead of his side’s World Cup qualifying clashes with Bolivia and Venezuela in October:

"

There’s a reason he is called the Magician [by Liverpool fans].

With his passes, Coutinho opens the lines, creates space. I like his mobility, he was influential in both games when he came on [in September].

It was a difficult decision for me, but right now this is Coutinho’s moment. And in football, you have to follow the moment.

"

Tite is clearly is willing to reward club form, moving away from the days of Jo and Fred turning out as starting centre-forwards at the World Cup in 2014, and this will likely see Coutinho take up a key role against Argentina and Peru.

This mirrors his transition from bit-part creator to key man on Merseyside, with Coutinho hurdling every challenge set in his path of late.

However, the major difference between Coutinho for Liverpool and Coutinho for Brazil is his starting position; as with Neymar cementing his place on the left, and either Jesus or Firmino preferred up front, Coutinho is forced to make do with a role on the right of a forward three.

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In theory, this should see him adopt a similar outlook to under Klopp at Anfield, drifting inside to dictate play and create chances for his team-mates—with Neymar replicating Mane’s direct attacking role and Firmino filling a similar duty to that performed at Liverpool.

But this does run the risk of blunting his threat to an extent, most notably in his ability to cut inside from the left and either play the killer pass between the lines or test the goalkeeper with his favoured right.

However, the November international break provides an opportunity to prove this won’t be his downfall.

Having surpassed Willian as Tite’s favoured right winger by virtue of his all-round game, Coutinho must now look to ensure he is as valuable to his country as he is his club.

Jack Lusby will be covering Liverpool throughout 2016/17 as one of Bleacher Report's lead correspondents. Statistics courtesy of WhoScored.com and Transfermarkt.co.uk.

Follow Jack on Twitter @jacklusby and Facebook here.