Niko Kovac lauds Philippe coutinho, says he “dances” with the ball at times

Philippe Coutinho has enjoyed a fine start to life in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich. The Brazilian play-maker has already shown how effective he can be in the squad with his clever, crafty play. After opening his scoring account for Bayern in their 4-0 over FC Köln, he scored a goal and provided an assist in Bayern’s dramatic 3-2 win over SC Paderborn, where he was arguably one of the best players on the pitch for Bayern.

In the post-match press conference following the win, Niko Kovac didn’t hold back in his praise for the 27-year-old Brazilian magician (Bundesliga.com):

Philippe speaks for himself really. I think everyone in the stadium today and everyone who watched the match once again saw the ability he has and the quality he has on the ball. At times it really looks like he’s dancing with the ball, there’s no other way of saying it. He knows exactly when, how and what to do with the ball.

It was his sublime lofted, curling pass to Serge Gnabry that set up Bayern’s first goal at the Benteler Arena. Coutinho’s goal (Bayern’s second) came off of a brilliant sequence of passing between Kingsley Coman, Joshua Kimmich, and Gnabry. On both goals, Coutinho was in the right place at the right time and made the right decision to capitalize on both opportunities. Kovac lauded Coutinho’s involvement in both of those goals:

He set up the first goal brilliantly, but even after making the pass he sprinted off into the box because he was focused on scoring. With his goal, the build-up was the other way around with Serge teeing him up with a superb pass. That’s individual quality.

Kovac is impressed overall with how quickly Coutinho has become integrated into the squad and how much of an impact has already made. Looking forward, Kovac still feels that the best is still yet to come from the Brazilian:

He’ll definitely help us even more. He’s already contributing, he’s integrated well and is happy here. And when a South American player with his kind of quality is happy, then you can see how fantastic that is.