Watched Phillips a couple of seasons ago playing for u21’s and was always good, he then injured his back and had a long lay off, finally he makes his premier league debut at the ripe age of 23 and receives man of the match. Phillips is a man whereas Billy and Rhys are big boys.
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Well my stance did kind of rely on Matip being replaced by a more physically robust, more regularly available, young CB as well at the same time as Fabinho be 4th choice/CM option and Phillips be 5th choice. My opinion was always that the replacing of Lovren (or the feeling of urgent need to do so) wasn’t the problem it was a symptom of the problem that we had 1 or 2 CBs ahead in the pecking order that we couldn’t rely upon. Three top class, regularly available, CBs plus Fabinho as an option, Phillips as an emergency and some promising academy kids to be developed should have always been good enough and deep enough even with this congested season. Able even to deal with the VvD injury. But Matip can’t be relied upon so it’s still everyone running round panicking and stressing out but not many seem to want to back the difficult move of saying goodbye to Matip and bringing in a more readily available replacement. Without that you end up “needing” to upgrade on Phillips. Sorry will stop ranting now.
The previous debate was about Phillips being 4th choice rather than emergency back up. He shouldn’t have been that. And Klopp didn’t pick him as that. Not sure I see the relevance.
Did well tonight against West Ham though, he was dominant in the air. Exactly what we needed with some back to the walls defending. Did enough to suggest he can be trusted against the more agricultural sides in the league.
Pleased for him.
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"That's a huge compliment - especially coming from him!" 🤩
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 31, 2020
Nathaniel Phillips reacts to being awarded the Man of the Match award by @Carra23 after an impressive Premier League debut for #LFC! 👏 pic.twitter.com/wQy7AWGnoZ
Sounds like an honest guy with a great attitude and genuinely glad to be playing for us. We may have just unearthed 2 diamonds in the rough with the adversity we’ve had to overcome. He was so dominant today that I feel much better with him and Rhys in our squad for the matches to come.
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I think Phillips was tested a lot more than Rhys was, however, the crux is as people say, this is just 1 game and it will be interesting to see how he comes up against a more mobile forward line. So far he hasn’t let us down when he has played.
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Well done lad.
Keep working hard. Next games won’t be against parked buses.
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Happy to see the lad get a chance and put in a strong defensive display. It’s still a bit early to name him the absolute solution to our problems, but physically at least he seems to tick some boxes. 6 headed clearances is quite impressive and since we needed that aerial defensive presence as was told in other threads by @AnfieldRdDreamer Philips did a good job.
I still question whether or not he can play the ball out of the back with consistency and without making too many mistakes but I don’t want to diminish the guy in any way. I hope he continues to perform well for us.
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He did pretty well whenever he was needed. You do see a big difference in quality when he’s on the ball though. Got himself into trouble once or twice. But at least tried to keep it simple when he needed to. Now he might get more games in the league. Rhys might in Europe. Helps us and helps him as well. He’s in his final year and interest will grow.
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If you combine him with Thiago ahead he’ll be fine. His passing isn’t fantastic and he is a bit of a panicker with the ball, but in the air he is utterly dominant… Which is the trait we need the most when paired with Gomez or Fabinho.
A very good performance but Haller really was soft, didn’t throw him or his weight around. Bigger tests to come.
He’s actually very good on the ball and is a good passer. If he came across as panicky I expect that’s just nerves from making his first start for us in the league and that this will settle down with more games.
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That was my issue, why we played Jones at RCM. We ended the first half my flipping our 8’s, but then went back to it until Jones was brought off. I think Gini would’ve provided better protection on our right side, while Jones would be both better protected on the left + he can attack arguably better than Gini with his right foot. The goal we conceded was poor from a number of aspects. Gini will I think play more RCM anyway when Thiago is fit and playing regularly at LCM.
Yep. The loan spell in Stuttgart was a perfect match up too. If Nate wasn’t up to snuff, Klopp wouldn’t have done the dirty on the club he first supported as a kid and suggested he move there.
At Stuttgart he gained experience playing on the right side (and middle occasionally) of a back three, which adds a string to his bow if we ever need to try that formation out.
The good part about this performance and being the first start is the boost it’ll give to his confidence, especially giving a MotM performance in an area we have been struggling even with VVD.
Will be interesting to see if we act in January (someone in) > can allow to sell him (if there are no new big injuries) > what’s the interest like, with him having then 6 months left on his deal. But whatever happens, it’s a really nice little story indeed and I just hope he enjoys regular football at a decent level for as long as he can. Klopp likes his story whenever he spoke of him, I think he appreciates someone who knows his qualities/limits (maybe he reminds him of himself in some aspects when he was a player), but gives nothing less than 100% for the team and can be useful as a short term cover, also to help revive his career.
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As much as I would like to take credit, my actual argument was that Klopp will be fine heading into a season with Phillips as the 4th choice and that I thought that would happen instead of signing a new player (rather than me saying Phillips is good enough to be 4th choice)
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I think his inability to play the ball out was the reason Klopp was willing to sell him.
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Yeah … But he ain’t Messi 
Jurgen makes me laugh
Doubt it, I think it’s his lack of pace and the fact he’s 23 and had no realistic prospect of game time bar an unlikely sequence of injuries, that unfortunately we’ve now had.
He’s good on the ball and a good passer. Not sure what others are seeing here tbh.
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Against teams that go long and high he can do a job for us. Moyes was always going to play that way after the success Sheffield United had. Gomez is not so good in the air and its an obvious area of weakness for us since VVD’s injury.
He did great yesterday. Let’s not kid ourselves, he’s a pretty limited player but as long as accepts those limitations, keeps things simple and focuses on the things he can do well he could do a good job for us this season
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My view comes that maybe he is good, but compared to Van Dijk, Matip, Gomez he is “ok” i.e. not their level. He does get flustered when pressed, which is the main reason I rate him at that level, thats a fundamental of our system.
His lateral low passing was very good, but his long balls were pretty much aimless punts.
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