‘A shadow of the player who was at Liverpool’ - Former Aston Villa star critical of summer signing

Steven Gerrard’s side failed to get the win in their latest Premier League fixture against Nottingham Forest on Monday night.
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Aston Villa’s attacking players have been the focus of a lot of criticism in recent weeks, having netted just four goals in their last five league matches.

Thir current total of eight league goals is the joint second lowest in the Premier League and Monday night’s 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest showcased the problems Steven Gerrard’s side are having in the final third. Despite dominating the possession 61% to 39% at the City Ground, Villa managed just two shots on target all match including Ashley Young’s 22nd minute goal. Now, a former Aston Villa favourite has publicly spoken out against one of the current attackers and has questioned his contributions since signing for the club in the summer.

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Philippe Coutinho completed a permanent move to Villa Park this year for £17 million, having spent the latter half of the 2021/22 season on loan with the Premier League side. The fee looked like an incredible piece of business for a player who is still only 30-years old and has won league titles in Italy, Germany and Spain. He was a standout alongside Gerrard while they were teammates at Liverpool before signing for Barcelona for a fee well over £100 million.

However, he has yet to find the back of the net for Villa this season which has led to club favourite Shay Given describing him as ‘a shadow’ of the player from his Liverpool days. The former keeper, who turned out at Villa Park between 2011 and 2015, as speaking on TalkSPORT following the Nottingham Forest draw.

He said: “Coutiniho has been a big disappointment. I suppose they wouldn’t have let him go in Spain if they thought there was still a really good player in there. They got him on the cheap, people will say, because of how much Liverpoool got for him a few years before but he looks a shadow of the player who was at Liverpool. I don’t know if it’s a confidence thing or form or whatever it is. I suppose it’s one of the jobs of the manager to get the best out of them, Steven mentioned pre-match they’d been working on final third entries, getting bodies in the box and shots on goal. They have the quality, it just doesn’t seem to be clicking.”

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