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Ed Mackey

Phillipe Coutinho and Steven Gerrard fire Leeds United warning in impressive Southampton victory

The next big task for Jesse Marsch and Leeds United is the visit of Aston Villa to Elland Road in midweek.

The Whites desperately need a reaction from the defeat against Leicester and there is no better time for that to come than on Thursday evening.

The prospect of a clash against Villa looked decent prior to the weekend with Steven Gerrard’s side struggling for form but they found their goalscoring touch on Saturday, in stark contrast to Leeds.

They ran out 4-0 winners against in-form Southampton despite having fewer shots than Marsch’s side had at King Power Stadium against Leicester.

The main difference at Villa Park was the impact of Phillipe Coutinho who was very much at his world-class best, as he has been a couple of times this season.

He managed a goal and an assist and yet, on another day, could have gone home with the match ball and an extra assist or two.

One of those other times was when Leeds were the visitors to Villa Park back in February. He was directly involved in each of his team's three goals as he scored once and assisted both of Jacob Ramsey's goals as they raced into a 3-1 lead.

The Whites were, of course, able to make it 3-3 in the second half but, had it not been for the former Barcelona midfielder, they probably would have came away from the West Midlands with all of the points.

After the win against Southampton, his manager and former team mate unsurprisingly had to field plenty of questions about the Brazilian midfielder.

"The Phil type of player, i.e. the Buendia and Coutinhos, they need runners and people who will break the lines without the ball," Gerrard told our sister site Birmingham Live.

"They need to be able to slide people in, and I thought at times today, with all due respect to everyone else on the pitch, he showed a level that was above the game at times.

"He really showed his form of old, it was a pleasure to be in the stadium.

"I thought his quality today was high level, he could’ve went for goal himself but sets Douglas Luiz up for a tap in, and that goes to show what type of a team player we are dealing with here.

"For me, he was man of the match and he was above the game at times today."

Coutinho is a player that Leeds will have to pay special attention to on Thursday evening.

The 29-year-old is hardly an unknown entity in the Premier League so it would be fair to assume that Marsch will be devising a plan to deal with him as we speak.

With Coutinho usually operating off the left-hand side for Villa, it is likely to be Stuart Dallas’ responsibility to be the man thwarting him.

After struggling to get to grips with the threat posed by Harvey Barnes on Saturday, the ever-present Leeds man will need to be back to his resilient best on Thursday.

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