I also don't have any deep animosity towards him – and neither does the club, as it seems. Klopp mentioned "Phil" in the same breath as "Bobby" and "Alli" when talking about Brazil's Copa America win; former teammates still clearly like him. It's just that for the price he's going to go for, there is a plethora of better options out there. Barca paid £105M rising to £142M for him; surely the minimum they would let him go for is around £90-100M. Phil's output last season: 11 goals (5 in the league) and 5 assists (2 in the league). No Liverpool fan in their right mind would chose Coutinho to play at LW over Mane now. And as a midfielder, he doesn't have enough work-rate and athleticism to complement the front 3 in most games, except in really easy games like Spartak Moscow or Maribor at home. It's exactly the same problem that's holding him back at Barca – he's a very good goal-scoring winger, but due to lack of pace he will never join the ranks of super-elite like Neymar, Mbappe or Mane and as a midfielder he's never produced the chance-creating numbers comparable to the best in the trade, players like Eriksen, Modric, prime Ozil, Iniesta etc.
Instead of Phil, we could get Van de Beek for around £50M – a Lampard-like goal-scoring midfielder who is also built like an ox and can hold his own as CM, Aouar for 50M+ – a player stylistically very similar to Coutinho, except for being a much more diligent defender and Havertz (next season, probably) for £80M+ – a phenom combining the work-rate of an elite CM and goal-scoring and creative prowess of an elite attacker. Each one would be a better fit for Klopp's team, hold a lot more resale value (the 3 players I mentioned are all between 20 and 22 while Phil is 27), and cost up to twice as little. Nothing personal against Phil, but there are better options out there; we made a killing selling him to Barca and there is no reason to be going back.
