There was a point, sandwiched by Aston Villa’s second and third goals, when Philippe Coutinho decided the game was rather too easy when played in a conventional manner. He decided he was going to backheel his way through a crowded penalty area. He almost succeeded, too.
Perhaps few would have been surprised if he had. A talent has been liberated, a misfit rejuvenated, an object of mockery reinvented as the subject of tributes. Steven Gerrard can be a hard-nosed pragmatist when discussing other topics but a gushing admirer when the focus switches to his flagship signing.
