Gary Lineker thrilled by Philippe Coutinho display in Leeds United v Aston Villa
Gary Lineker was thrilled by Philippe Coutinho’s performance for Aston Villa in the 3-3 draw with Leeds United at Villa Park on Wednesday night.
Coutinho joined Villa in the January transfer window and has so far made a huge impact for Steven Gerrard’s side.
In the first half against Leeds, he scored one goal and assisted both of Jacob Ramsey’s, leading to praise from Lineker on Twitter.
The Match of the Day host said: “Good to see Coutinho making such an impact. Delightful footballer.”
Tore us apart
You have to hold your hands up sometimes and just admit that a player has done really, really well against your side.
We cannot think of many more times this season when a single player has put Leeds to the sword quite as Coutinho did on Wednesday night.
Villa did extremely well to sign the ex-Liverpool playmaker from Barcelona and it makes you wonder why Leeds are unable to pull off such deals.
Luke Ayling was made to look like the average Championship player he was under Thomas Christiansen and Paul Heckingbottom by Coutinho – the Leeds right-back was turned inside out time and time again by the Brazilian.
Leeds couldn’t get a handle on him and that’s one of the reasons why we failed to win in the West Midlands.
Leeds had their own star of the show in Daniel James, who scored twice and also hit the crossbar in an electrifying game at Aston Villa.
He won’t grab the headlines but it was encouraging to see the Wales international finally show a cutting edge.
In other Leeds United news, Phil Hay is baffled by this back-to-front Leeds transfer stance.