Nathaniel PHILLIPS: 2021/22 (on loan at Bournemouth)

He’s got a bit of a fishy name anyway

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People often talk about players from the past in modern football predicting how they’d shine or struggle etc. I feel we get to see that with Phillips. He’s a CB straight from the 80s or early 90s who would be an absolute star back then. He’s just pure, unadulterated, 100% physicality! No nonsense, just lots of “Ave it!!!”!

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Agree,he looks like he can be a pretty decent CB,and yeah,no nonsense!

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What’s the deal with the headband? He didn’t want to hurt the ball? :grin::muscle::clap:

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He grew into it as they started to lump it plus he intercepted a few dangerous crosses so kudos for those, really can’t fault the effort. He is extremely reckless though and we were damned lucky not to be punished. He gets drawn to the ball and leaves a massive gaping hole in his position time after time, it’s like watching a Lovren amped up by 10 times.

Anybody with some time who wants to have a good long look at our CB pairing performance without having to worry about the result should watch last night’s game again. He’s a bit of an unknown guy but any analytical team worth their salt is going to pick up on it and have their team play balls into the midfield with runners preparing to run beyond him into the gaping chasm he’s going to leave behind when he comes charging out towards the ball.

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He had a head injury in injury time against Fulham and was bleeding.

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Like a boxer determined to win at all cost puts a horseshoe in his glove…
Did Nat have one under that headband of his…?
He pinged away some headers last night…
Good on ya lad… Keep showing that determination every game eh

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We were in general good in the air, I thought Leipzig were clearly worse than in the first game. Missing Angelino and moving Nkunku from the forward line hurt them. They went with Poulsen and Sorloth from HT. That took a bit from their game, they were nowhere near as aggressive. We dealt with that pretty well in the air, but the odd time they broke forward on the floor, our crap situation at the back was clear as day (not only the two CB’s, but even Trent and Robbo at times holding or not holding the line). Phillips had some very good challenges. But I don’t think it will be enough. A better Leipzig (the one from the first leg) and most probably a better team/attack than Leipzig('s) will most probably punish us.

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Said it for ages if theres an Ariel dual he will win them.
If he comes up against a Mahrez type player hes toast.
But hes doing well and really putting in a shift for us.

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Your analysis is wrong, Nat stays on his man and does it well, with a DM worth that name it’s fine and he grows in confidence as he did last night.
Btw we have played like this under Klopp one CB on cover (VVD) and his partner as stopper, even Matip learned to press up on his man! this worked when we had Fabs or Hendo at DM, which is what we had last night. Compare Nat’s 1st half to his 2nd half performance the difference for me was his confidence levels, 1st half he wasn’t sure 2nd half he was confident, Fabs, Thiago and TAA were there.

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Think he will join Crystal Palace, they do like lads from Merseyside.

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Nah, he breaks position to try and win the ball and then is left running back to cover. Happened all the time yesterday. I distinctly remember him losing a duel in the opposition half while Kabak was 20 yards behind him! Think Lukaku vs Lovren against United that day, he’s going to come up against a team ready to exploit that and the entire defence is going to be hung out to dry.

It didn’t hurt us yesterday so it’s all good and he can work on it so that’s not to say it will happen again but if he carries on in that manner and basking in the glory he, and us, and going to get undone.

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He’ll probably get a nice Championship move at a side that plays direct football and defends deep.

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What I said, stays on his man, with a decent DM and covering partner that’s how it goes. Lovren did play for us in our system don’t forget!

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Well he will go on a free and is getting lots of exposure now, they’ll be cueing up. :smiley:

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Given Klopp’s praise about his ability to concentrate I am going to assume that he’s been instructed to engage the opponent like that. It makes sense. The opponent shouldn’t be allowed to win possession of the ball in those areas without challenge and you’d rather the other CB could mop up behind (plus Fabinho) if the opposition retained possession. It’s what Virgil would normally do with Gomez having the pace to cover in behind. Although Virgil doesn’t tend to get beaten that often. God I miss that guy.

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Dunno who this great RBL team people talk about from the first leg are?

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They’re not great, but they were better than last night, caused us more problems, had more energy and pace about them.

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