Liverpool produced a superb, vibrant display against Tottenham on Saturday evening, deservedly beating the Lilywhites 2-0 courtesy of a quickfire first-half brace from Sadio Mané.
The Merseysiders thwarted the high-flying north Londoners throughout the game, even deploying a very clever Brazilian trick to stop Christian Eriksen from scoring a free-kick.
The incident occurred in the first-half when Spurs won a free-kick in a dangerous position on the edge of the box.
While the usual defensive wall was formed in front of goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, Philippe Coutinho kneeled down directly behind his team-mates in order to block any attempt by Eriksen to fire the ball under the jumping wall.
The formation clearly put Eriksen off attempting a sneaky daisy-cutter, with the Danish playmaker instead lifting the ball over the wall and wide of the goal.
Coutinho revolutionising free-kick wall tactics pic.twitter.com/y5pngDHdGx
— Gegendepressed (@Effzehpool) February 11, 2017
The rather strange tactic is actually rather common in Brazilian football, with Coutinho’s international team-mate Marcelo doing the same thing during Brazil’s 3-0 win against Argentina back in November.
What a clever bit of thinking!