Italian press this morning have suggested Aston Villa have made contact with Inter Milan regarding the availability of 21 year old Brazilian attacking midfielder Philippe Coutinho.
A bid is yet to be made but discussions are said to have opened.
Coutinho is an attacking midfielder with one senior Brazil cap to his name but has shown promise over the last few years. Is issue he has at Inter is getting regular football. He has only played one full game this season (against Palermo) and may be looking to take a small step down (no offense Villa fans) in order to increase his chances for the World Cup in 2014. The graph below shows us that he has been substituted 70% of the time this season so Inter certainly isn’t fulfilling his criteria at the moment.
- Coutinho‘s appearance breakdown this season
What could he offer a Villa side that is seriously in need of a boost?
Well, despite being hauled off most of the time, Coutinho still has a goal in Serie A and he hits the target 55% of the time when shooting. That’s an impressive stat for one so young and playing in a league as defensive as Serie A.
- Coutinho‘s shot map this season
His Performance Score also suggests that he is a good all-rounder. You can see from the below graph that there is relatively little fluctuation between the Attacking, Possession & Defensive lines (bar a couple of shockers).
- Coutinho‘s game by game Performance Score this season
Coutinho doesn’t do too much in his own half of the pitch as is shown by this heat map of his one 90minute performance for this season Vs Palermo (Inter kicking left to right):
- Coutinho‘s action heat map vs Palermo
Aston Villa have only created 176 chances in the EPL this season so could desperately use a player of Coutinho’s promise to help fuel the young strike force of Benteke and Weiman (specifically in the center & wide left positions, see below:)
- Aston Villa‘s chance creation areas this season
The rumored fee is around 10 million Euros and at that price we would say this is a deal that could save Villa’s season.
Who do you think Villa need to buy? Let us know below!
Want the data? Check out stats and graphs for Philippe Coutinho on his Squawka Stats page right here
By Sanjit Atwal
Follow us @Squawka_Sports
Topics: Aston Villa, Inter Milan, Philippe Coutinho
