Liverpool resumed their Premier League season with a hard-fought 3-1 win over Aston Villa on Boxing Day. Mo Salah looked refreshed after missing out on the World Cup campaign, scoring the opening goal after some really beautiful link-up play.
Virgil van Dijk put down ghosts of World Cup past with a well-taken finish and youngster Stefan Bajcetic managed an impressive achievement of scoring his first Liverpool goal.
The win, thanks to Tottenham Hotspur dropping points against Brentford, allowed the Reds to move just five points behind the top 4.
While the game itself was quite an entertaining affair with lots of chances and thrilling action, a really heartwarming moment occurred involving Jurgen Klopp and his former player at Liverpool, Philippe Coutinho.
The Brazilian midfielder was only on the bench against his former side but was involved in the pre-match warmup session when he caught up with his ex-manager.
Just minutes before kick-off, the two managed to meet up on the pitch. Klopp, of course, has this weird habit of standing at the centre of the pitch just staring at the opposition players as they go on with their pre-match training routine.
As he was doing that, Coutinho approached him and was greeted with a warm hug. The two seem to have a pretty warm relationship even though the Brazilian winger forced his way out of the club in 2018 to complete a ‘dream move’ to Barcelona.
He was sold by Liverpool for a record fee of over £100m. The rest, of course, is history as the Brazilian midfielder ended up having a torrid time at Camp Nou before he was permanently sold to Villa earlier this year.
Before his exit, Coutinho was one of Klopp’s favorites players at Liverpool and made over 100 appearances under the German gaffer, scoring 30+ goals as well.
He might’ve exited the club on bitter terms, but time has healed his relationship with the Liverpool fans as well as the manager himself as well.
Considering that Liverpool basically signed Virgil van Dijk with the money they got from the Coutinho sale, they’ve considered his exit as water under the bridge.
The Liverpool fans also seem to have softened on their stance about the Brazilian, with many finding his sweet hug moment with Klopp before the Aston Villa game to be really heartwarming.
In fact, there are quite a lot of fans who actually want him to be brought back by the club. Coutinho doesn’t seem to have an important role at Villa Park anymore after the arrival of Unai Emery, who is using Emiliano Buendia more often than the Brazilian midfielder.
Some Liverpool fans believe that Coutinho can still be a good squad player for them and add more creativity, with the Reds lacking a real no.10.
Other fans are just enjoying just how sweet the hug looks and praised Klopp for almost treating his ex-player as his own family member.