Steven Gerrard tempted Coutinho to Villa Park on an initial loan in the January transfer window and the Brazilian has quickly found his feet back in the Premier League.
He was firmly in his groove on Saturday afternoon against Southampton as Aston Villa booked all three points with a comprehensive win.
Coutinho was central to Villa’s opener after just nine minutes, which Watkins scored, while the Brazilian then cushioned the ball across to Douglas Luiz to tap home and double the hosts’ advantage just before the break.
The loan star got in on the goalscoring act himself in the 52nd minute, while Danny Ings completed the rout two minutes later.
Watkins was full of praise for Coutinho post match, not least how quickly he sees things on the pitch, something he thinks no one can match.
“Sometimes he thinks too quickly for you, so I have to go off his body movement and sometimes I’ve gone the opposite way”, he told the BBC’s Match of the Day.
“He’s too sharp – he thinks quicker than anyone else.
“I can’t speak highly enough about him to be honest.
“It’s a joy to play with him, and Ingsy, and hopefully we can do this more often to teams.”
The Villa striker is keen for his side to now use the win to kick on and generate some consistency, while also doing the ugly side of the game well.
“We’ve had a bit of a sticky spell but we’ve got to find some consistency and be hard to beat.
“We’ve got a lot of good technical players, so it is about doing the ugly side”, he added.
Aston Villa sit in eleventh spot following the win and are just two points off ninth placed Southampton, as they zero in on a top half finish.
