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Philippe Coutinho’s unusual method of defending free-kicks was inspired by international teammate

Published 19:12 11 Feb 2017 GMT

Updated 19:13 11 Feb 2017 GMT

Simon Lloyd
Philippe Coutinho’s unusual method of defending free-kicks was inspired by international teammate

Homesport

There some of us were, thinking Philippe Coutinho kneeling down behind his teammates to thwart Christian Eriksen's attempts to score a free-kick was truly pioneering stuff.

Wrong. Whereas this might well be new to many Premier League viewers, it was swiftly pointed out by some folk on Twitter that Coutinho had been inspired by one of his international teammates. As the tweet below shows, it was a tactic deployed by Real Madrid's Marcelo not so long ago... https://twitter.com/Roromeo_MUFC10/status/830482951380951040 The picture is from Brazil's World Cup qualifier against Argentina last November, where the seleção used it to try and keep Lionel Messi from shooting underneath their wall. Coutinho can be seen on the left of the picture, too. Brazil ran out 3-0 victors that night, with Coutinho scoring the first goal of the game before Paulinho and Neymar finished things off. We look forward to seeing if it catches on in the weeks ahead. Catch up with this week's episode of 888sport Football Friday Live

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Philippe Coutinho's unusual method of defending free-kicks was inspired by international teammate