Philippe Coutinho banishes memories of Stoke humiliation with stunning

“It [the 6-1] was a one-off game, a unique game“.

He also spoke about the balance in the dressing room between young and experienced players, and that it was an exciting time to be involved with the club as a result.

That Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers was set to replace Coutinho with Danny Ings before he struck gold adds drama to his eye-popping game-winner. “I think he is going to keep improving all the time”.

“I was very close to taking him off”, Rodgers told reporters.

The Brazilian’s party piece – a characteristic turn, followed by a shot that curled and dipped beyond Jack Butland in the Stoke City goal – turned a satisfying afternoon for Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool into a rewarding one as they won 1-0.

Meanwhile, former Liverpool captain and manager Graeme Souness feels that having spent heavily in the transfer market during the last two summers, it is only natural the spotlight will now be on Rodgers at the start of this season. It was a very ugly game though; Coutinho was the unquestioned man of the match due to the fact that his sublime scoring strike was pretty much the only highlight of the game.

“It was a good performance after a long pre-season, to get the win after what happened here last season was even more important”.

Philippe Coutinho’s late stunner lit up a drab Premier League opener as Liverpool claimed maximum points at Stoke City. “In any successful team it is how you respond to setbacks that matters”. If we can defend well then we know we have the attacking quality going forward to score goals.

“It worked perfectly for us and I thought the players were outstanding….”

This is a stark contrast to the season before when both Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge managed to each get over 20 goals in the 2013/14 campaign.

Lucas, who has struggled with injuries in the past, but made his way to the first-team in the 2014/15 season following his recovery.

Hughes, who expressed surprise Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren was only booked after an apparent elbow on Mame Biram Diouf, also revealed Stoke were hoping to complete a deal for Inter Milan midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri.

“Liverpool have invested a lot of money this summer but I did not see £80m worth of difference between the teams…We will get stronger and be more creative”.