Kevin de Bruyne has been in inspired form for Manchester City so far this season

Both midfielders scored awesome long-range goals at the weekend.

Coutinho curled home a trademark effort to give Liverpool the lead against Newcastle in a match they drew 1-1.

But De Bruyne’s left-foot strike proved the winner in Man City’s 1-0 win over Chelsea.

“If I was in charge of recruitment at Barcelona I’d be looking to take Kevin De Bruyne over Philippe Coutinho all day long,” said former Liverpool player Collymore in his Mirror column.

“It’s not even a contest.

“If the Brazilian is worth £140m in the Catalan club’s eyes, then the Belgian is more like £180m or £190m.”

De Bruyne still has four years to run on the six-year contract worth a basic £115,000-per-week that he signed with City in 2015 following his £55m move from Wolfsburg.

The Telegraph report that City will open talks with De Bruyne over a new contract in the coming weeks that could see the midfielder almost double his existing £6m a year wages.

Man City's Kevin de Bruyne is challenged by Tiemoue Bakayoko of Chelsea

Collymore believes that the correct decision was made to let Barcelona’s game with Las Palmas go ahead.

“Speaking of Barcelona, I strongly disagree with those who said Sunday’s game against Las Palmas should have been postponed rather than take place behind closed doors because of the trouble in Catalonia,” he said.

“As I said last week, politics should never affect sport.”

Collymore scored 28 goals in 64 Liverpool appearances in the 1990s.