Brendan Rodgers has piled on the praise to January signing Philippe Coutinho saying that he would pay to watch him after a series of superb performances during pre-season.
Coutinho scored and made one in the Reds final tour game in Asia as they defeated Bangkok 3-0 in Thailand to which Rodgers was delighted.
He is quoted in the Daily Star saying of the 21-year-old, “Coutinho had me up off my seat. He’s a player you would pay money to watch because he’s just a delight on the ball.
“He’s a real find for us, in terms of the price we have paid, and hopefully his value will be much greater than the cost in the coming years.”
There were questions raised that being slight and just 5ft 6in tall that he would not be able to cope with the physicality of the Premier League, but the Northern Irishman does not believe that is a problem.
“Don’t worry, he can look after himself – you can see he can use his body if needs be,” he said.
“Of course, he has to become adapted to the physical game here because it is very physical, but you can see already he has genuine man-strength.
“That strength will grow even more, the longer he is in the country and gets physically that bit stronger and gets up with the tempo.”
Liverpool returned home yesterday after a tour of Indonesia, Australia and Thailand that proved to be an unqualified success both on and off the pitch.
Rodgers was delighted with the work-rate and effort of his players ahead of their Premier League opener at home to Stoke on August 17.
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