Arsenal’s Gabriel now raves about 31-year-old who Jurgen Klopp sold for Liverpool in 2018

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Arsenal defender Gabriel has name-checked a former Liverpool player as one of his favourite Brazilians.

Gabriel has been one of the Premier League’s outstanding defenders of the past 18 months, finding his way into the Brazilian national team in the process.

As one of the most historic footballing nations on the planet, Brazil has produced some of the best players in history. Asked to name his most inspirational countrymen of ‘years gone by’ by arsenal.com. the 25-year-old mentioned a name all too familiar to Liverpool fans: Philippe Coutinho.

“After Ronaldo [Nazario] came to Corinthians, of course I watched him a lot and he’s a top player,” Gabriel began.

“I like Neymar so I’m happy to be there with him. Now he’s injured but he’s a good guy. I love to be there because I watched Neymar when I was younger.

“A lot of players, Marquinhos as well, Thiago Silva… I’m so happy to be there. Coutinho is a top player and I’ve played with him as well for the national team.”

Gabriel sends Coutinho reminder

Given the way his career veered off course after leaving Liverpool for Barcelona, it can be easy to forget just how important Coutinho previously was for Brazil.

Granted, it wasn’t a stellar period for the Selecao, but during the 2018 World Cup for example, the former Reds magician was his country’s most important player, along with Neymar.

Even in the years after, Coutinho was still a regular in the Brazil squad. But now, having barely featured for Unai Emery at Aston Villa last season and now with Qatari side Al-Duhail, Phil hasn’t played for his country for almost 18 months.

Nevertheless, it’s worth looking back on just how good Coutinho was before his Barca move started to go wrong.

During his last year or so at Liverpool, he was one of the best players in the Premier League – and was also a favourite of Tottenham’s James Maddison.

Encompassing his enormous transfer to Barcelona in 2018, he scored 22 goals in 42 appearances during the 2017/18 season. For a player who was nominally a midfielder, those are incredible stats.

Even at Barca, where he’s widely seen to have failed pretty miserably, Coutinho scored 21 goals over his first 76 appearances, winning two La Liga titles along the way.

So, although it may sound like a strange choice to some, Coutinho is worthy of being alongside the names Gabriel mentions. He’s one of our favourite ever Brazilians, too.