For any foreigner plying their trade on a far flung continent, the biggest battle at hand is largely one of homesickness.

– AGL: Ali Mabkhout in talks with La Liga clubs
– EPL: Lille show Liverpool how to treat Origi
– VIDEO: Guardiola denies move to Man City
– FOLLOW: Live football scores around the world

From familiar surroundings to your favourite cuisine, hundreds and thousands of miles over land and sea can dissipate or increase in equally swift strokes of the brush.

A taste of home can be found in a local eatery of a cosmopolitan country long since encountered by your fellow countrymen. While it may serve as a reminder, it will be hard pressed to replicate the taste of your family kitchen.

Equally, the memories of an old street where you played with friends can seem remarkably distant, blurred by new ones played out to less familiar backdrops.

For players at Liverpool, this is something manager Brendan Rodgers is trying to keep from being forgotten by his young charges and used as a motivational tool.

Rodgers has been reading out messages of support from his team’s mothers before games this season and Brazil midfielder Philippe Coutinho is one of those players to have benefitted from Rodgers’ experiment.

“I was so anxious for it to be my turn, for the manager to read the letter from my Mum,” Coutinho told CNN.

“I waited and waited for it. The manager had spoken to the mothers of every player in the team, he’d been reading a message before every game for months and finally my turn had come.

“At first, I didn’t know that the manager would be reading a letter from her, then he mentioned her name and I was really overwhelmed.

As for the message’s content?

“It said she loved me, is proud of me, is always with me and missing me.

“There was more, but those are just the words I needed to hear. It filled me up. The other players were also really moved because every week, regardless of whose mother it was with the message, we were all inspired and emotional.

“We were getting really strong, powerful words and it pushed us so much.”

On that day last season Coutninho netted the winner in a 3-2 win over Manchester City in a pivotal match that, at the time, looked set to hand the Anfield side the Premier League title.

Having moved to Italy and Inter Milan from his native Brazil at the age of 18, Coutinho knows all too well the challenges associated with a continental drift.

The mini magician has, however, had a huge advantage in combating this change.

His childhood sweetheart, Aine, followed Coutinho to Inter at 17 and has been his support system ever since.

It is little wonder that Rodgers’ method struck a chord with the man who has an arm full of ink to serve as constant reminder to the most important people in his life.

“[My parents and wife] moved with me to help make the settling easier,” Coutinho explained to CNN.

“But it was hard for them. As they were old, it was difficult for them to learn the language or adapt to a new culture and ways of doing things like I could.

“Aine had to change her entire routine, my dad had to quit his job which was painful because he loves to be busy. My parents eventually moved back to Brazil, so since then it has been me and my wife, although they are always involved.

“If there is something that needs to be done on my behalf back home for example, my brothers take care of it for me. I share everything with my family; all my happiness and success is theirs.”

This ability to share is reflected in Coutinho’s ability on the pitch, where his unselfishness is matched by his understanding of those around him.

Having lost out on the title last year and being way off the pace at the top of the table this time around, Rodgers may have missed a trick by not having Coutinho’s mother deliver the team-talk every week.