Aston Villa fans agree as pundit spots huge Philippe Coutinho problem for Steven Gerrard

Former England international goalkeeper David James doesn't think a player of Philippe Coutinho's quality should be playing at Aston Villa, despite the Barcelona loanee looking "happy" playing his football under Steven Gerrard.

The Brazil international has made an encouraging start to life at Villa having recorded four goal contributions in five games in claret and blue.

Yet, James believes Coutinho shouldn't be at Villa given his ability.

Speaking to GGRecon, the former Premier League stopper: "It’s one of those paradoxes - how can this player play so well, and be on loan to Aston Villa. It’s kind of like, if he’s that good, he shouldn’t be there. I say that respectfully.

"The downside is that his fitness looks absolutely shot. He makes a couple of runs and then he looks tanked. The difficulty for Stevie G and Villa is that if they can sort his fitness out and get that level of play from a fitter player, then Coutinho’s price and desirability goes up.

"At the moment, you’re looking at Coutinho thinking, is he a 60-minute player or a 70-minute player. He’s not a 90-minute player. And Aston Villa at the moment require a 90-minute player.

"At first I wasn’t sure about Coutinho at Villa - all the headlines were about Stevie recruiting an old teammate - but he looks happy."

And Villa fans are in agreement that Coutinho will flourish under Gerrard as his fitness improves before the end of the season.

We should look to play him at no.8/no.10, creating, while Buendia, Watkins, Bailey do the running.

If you buy a player like Coutinho you have to make the surrounding right, this didn't happen at Barca it was all about Messi and the other super stars he couldn't fit in. But Villa is different he is there Messi. Gerrard can