Paul Merson has claimed that Aston Villa’s call to secure the permanent transfer of Philippe Coutinho this summer ‘wasn’t a great buy’, as he told Sky Sports News.
The Holte End favourite added that Coutinho and Emiliano Buendia simply can’t play in the same team together because Steven Gerrard’s side simply aren’t good enough to have that ‘luxury’.
On Wednesday night, Coutinho was dropped to the bench as Villa suffered a 2-1 defeat at Arsenal – their fourth defeat of the new Premier League campaign already.
Buendia was his replacement, but he was hooked off in the second half, as the pressure mounts on Gerrard in the dugout.
At this rate, the former Rangers boss will be out of the door in a few weeks because there is no stopping this rot.
Merson thinks the Villa boss simply doesn’t know his best XI, as he highlighted the issue with the Coutinho transfer.
“The biggest worry for any Villa fan is that Gerrard doesn’t know his best team,” said Merson.
“I think it’s worrying, at the moment. I think it’s worrying. He has to stop and give these players a run. He can’t go ‘one bad game and out you come’.
“He has good players there and they need to get used to each other. I thought buying Coutinho, everyone was like ‘Oh, it’s Coutinho’. I didn’t think they needed Coutinho.
“They already had the lad from Norwich. They are the same players. They aren’t going to play in the same team. Villa aren’t good enough to have two so-called luxury players. For me, I didn’t think that wasn’t a great buy.”
BUENDIA PERFORMING BETTER THAN COUTINHO
It was the right call for Villa to sign Coutinho for good, but Gerrard needs to learn when others are performing better.
Buendia has shown more promise and made the team tick a lot better, but he constantly finds himself on the bench.
And when he is handed a chance, he is then dropped the next game, which will probably happen against Manchester City on Saturday.
Either way, Villa have the attacking talent to be performing a lot better, but it’s the man in the dugout that is the issue.
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