Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard says he is in no hurry to sign loan star Philippe Coutinho on a permanent deal at the club.
Former Liverpool midfielder Coutinho moved back to the Premier League in January from La Liga giants Barcelona in a temporary switch until the end of the season.
And the Brazilian has shown flashes of the quality that tempted Barca into forking out £142 million to take him to Spain in 2018, before his stock fell badly and he became symbolic of the overspending that has helped cripple the Catalan club financially.
Coutinho produced a man-of-the-match performance in Villa's 4-0 thrashing of Southampton on Saturday, when Gerrard described the 29-year-old's efforts as “right up there with his Liverpool form of old“.
Reports suggest that Villa have an option to make the deal permanent for £33 million ($45m) in the summer but, speaking before Villa's match at Leeds United on Thursday, Gerrard insisted the club's priority has to be keeping “a world-class talent” fit.
“For me it doesn’t make any sense to make any decisions now,” said the Liverpool playing legend and former Glasgow Rangers manager. “When he’s physically in the right place, when he’s comfortable and happy and enjoying his football, we all know we’re dealing with a world-class talent.
“We just need to keep enjoying him, to keep him healthy from now until the end of the season and I’m sure he’ll help us. To watch him and work with him and see him get back to his top form and enjoy his football again is a pleasure.”
The win against Southampton was their second in a row and lifted Villa up to 11th in the table after some poor results in February when they took just one point in matches against bottom-half sides Leeds, Newcastle and Watford.
And after those disappointing results, Gerrard said it was important not to get carried away by a couple of victories. “It’s certainly something we have spoken about,” he said. “Where we are in the table, we can’t afford to be complacent and we need to keep pushing in every single game.
“It was important after a couple of defeats not to get too down and panic, and at the same time on the back of a couple of wins and the mood changes and everyone is smiling, it’s important you don’t get [ahead of] yourself.
“I don’t think we’re in a place yet where we can go into a game underestimating anyone and disrespecting the challenge in front of us.”
One plus point that has pleased Gerrard has been the emergence of Danny Ings and Ollie Watkins as an attacking partnership, with both players – as well as Coutinho – on target against Southampton.
“I’ve always been positive about it, in the last couple of weeks it’s worked ever so well, there’s potential for it to grow and I’m really excited about it,” said Gerrard, who will be further boosted by Lucas Digne, Ezri Konsa and Carney Chukwuemeka all being available again after missing the Saints game.
“I thought our creativity and movement was a real positive [against Southampton]. In transition and going forward, we created some really big chances.”
