Liverpool are interested in completing a deal for gifted magician but he will need to take a cut on £380,000/week wages

Philippe Coutinho has accepted he must leave Barcelona to reignite his career and Liverpool are reportedly interested in signing him despite his injuries and issues with form.

The attacking midfielder - who scored and assisted a combined total of 20 goals in his final half-season with Liverpool in the 2017/18 season - joined Barcelona in January 2018 for a Premier League record sale of £142million.

He was warned by Jurgen Klopp about going to a club like Barcelona where he would not be the star of the show and since he left, his career has been on a steady decline although he did win the Champions League with Thiago at Bayern Munich.

Coutinho is not interested in a return to Brazil but is instead focused on a return to England and while I'm sure the main reason is to get back to playing regularly, I'm sure he has one eye on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar later this year.

He was one of his nation's standout players at the Russia World Cup and while injuries have made it difficult to flourish in La Liga alongside a myriad of other issues, it's clear for all to see that Coutinho is still a very talented player.

The biggest concern for Liverpool regarding re-signing the Brazilian would be his wages even if some would have you believe he is an incredibly injury-prone player - he's not that prone to muscular problems but he did suffer a meniscus tear that ruled him out for 220 days which makes his record look a lot worse.

Since leaving the club 3 years ago, he's only suffered 5 injuries including the meniscus injury but the constant managerial change and media scrutiny at Barca has made it very difficult for any kind of consistency for Coutinho.

Klopp got the most out of him by putting his arm around him and making him feel special as he's the type of player that needs to feel like he's important.

If he's on the fringes of the squad or not contributing much, his form is going to dip.

He flourished at Liverpool because so much of the Reds' play went through him so he was forced to raise his game whereas at Barcelona, the quick passing doesn't suit him as much as it doesn't allow him to hold onto the ball, beat his man and unleash his trademark curlers.

This is still an unlikely deal even with Liverpool struggling to field a full team with COVID-19 cases, injuries and AFCON and if it did, the Brazilian would need to take a massive cut on his reported £380,000/week wages as that's close to what Mohamed Salah is demanding at Liverpool.