Coutinho hasn't been finishing well lately would be a better description rather than hasn't bee playing well lately.
I like Coutinho on the left of a narrow midfield where he is hard to pick up as he drifts in and across the opposition midfield. The versatility in the squad is that without Sturridge playing Sterling gets game time and the front line is a lot different.
Having said that he has not finished well he did score at Man C and at Everton earlier in the season and has been absent for a few games too.
The trio of Suarez Sturridge and Coutinho has only ever started about 5 games together. For their physical style I don't think the Stoke game is the one where they need to all start together either. This has got 1-0 written all over it. And it could go either way.
The biggest factor will be that Stoke will be missing Assaidi who has not only been scoring goals but has seen quite a bit of the ball out wide. I think they will miss him.
I think he'll want to stay on at stoke, come end of season.
If he’s playing well why leave him at stoke, given our squad, we need every half decent player we can lay hands on, bring him back asap I say...if he’s playing well
Found it a bit weird that Brendan Rodgers has had the time to invite Suso back over to England to discuss his Anfield future and only bothers to send Assaidi the odd text message (according to Assaidi). That's very poor man management in my opinion.
I'd like to see Assaidi get a fair crack of the whip here. He looked very lively to me when he did play, is proving he can make it in this league and he could/would strengthen our best at the very least.
