He did improve significantly, and note that he never had many opportunities to train with the likes of Van Dijk due to their long injuries. We should keep him until January and review him then.
Not to mention that both Van Dijk and Gomez may not be fit enough to play in the first few matches of next season, and Gomez will likely take months, maybe even until November/December, to fully return to his old form.
Phillips was signed to the u23s. Not even the team Klopp manages.
For those not paying attention Gomez has higher pass accuracy than Phillips both long and short (as well as being more adventurous and creative with those passes).
Gomez has an excellent pass. That doesnāt mean Nat is poor at passing!
Pay attention yourself!
Mute point in absolute terms!
I donāt think Phillips is particularly good on the ball either. He hit a few nice passes forward against Madrid at Anfield, but thatās not the norm, and even in that game two of Madridās best chances came from his carelessness in possession.
Itās fair to say that heās been relatively safe with the ball in the games yes played. Heās played a handful of nice passes, but not many. Compare him with the passes Williams has made and heās quite a long way behind IMO.
The main difference between Nat and Gomez is the fact Gomez can step out with the ball to beat the press. Not everything needs to be a 50 yard ping, just that simple step out can open the pitch up.
Wrong.
The main difference between Nat and Gomez is that one was fit to play and the other wasnāt.
I seriously canāt believe some of the negativity Iām reading here.
If Nat hadnāt have been an option to the club at all during those last 10 games then at best weād be playing Thursday night footie next seasonā¦
Donāt think anyone is saying that ideally he should be 1st choice at start of next season but we need to protect the interests of the club first and foremost.
Simple question to those that donāt rate him at allā¦
Letās say we receive an offer of say Ā£7m for him this summerā¦youād be happy to accept it in the knowledge that we do have genuine fitness question marks concerning ALL of Virgil, Gomez, Matip and Konate??
Yes. Because Phillips (no matter how heroically well he has done this season playing beyond himself) is not the answer. The situation with those means we really need to sign another decent CB. Phillips isnāt enough.
I think when people say āheās good on the ballā, weāre watching too much in the context as if he was a fan thrown into professional football. Of course he can pass (but letās not overexaggerate), heās a footballer at the end of the day. Regardless that he almost quit football when he left Bolton. We probably heard about the situation which is local stuff and saw an opportunity there to take him, see what we can do with him and sell him at some point. Yes, heās good in the air and tries to pick out a pass. Ultimately, not good enough for us. Maybe sticks until January or for one more season, which depends on our CB situation over the next month and until August 31st, then Klopp decides if we need him as 5th choice cover or not.
But you know rightly that we wonāt be buying another centre back in the current transfer window after signing Konate and with that knowledge youād be willing to let Nat go THIS SUMMER?
I actually donāt know that at all. I believe we will be signing another (left footed) CB this summer, maybe after some room has been made first with some departures. We came so close to signing multiple left footed CBs in January before settling for a right footed one on loan with only an option to buy when we couldnāt complete any of the other deals. Seeing right footed, long term target, Konate come in now makes sense as to why we were reluctant to commit to a long term right footed CB. But we made bids for lefties that were nearly accepted. I still expect we will return and complete one of those deals for Botman or Caleta-Car. Then the two new CBs will be our starters at the start of the season whilst the others work their way back to fitness.
Nat done well but heās not what Klopp wants and if we are honest heās far too easily beaten by anyone that had a bit of pace.
Can you point to one poster who has said that?
This is the problem here we are taking things completely out of context. Yet he is decent on the ball, has decent controll and if every time we have to explain what decent is then weāre in for a long night.
The thing is who here doesnāt think Nat could do a job in the Championship?
There you have it if he can heās decent if he can not heās perhaps ok.
The thing is to be a regular starter at LFC you need to be very good at most things and excellent at a few at least. Hopefully even fantastic as a few things.
Oh, and Iām not having a go at you I just hope others read this as an example. If Nat was just 5th/6th choice we wouldnāt be talking about this the reason we are talking about this is all our CBs are crooked and heās 1st or 2nd choice. The problem is not Nat.
Did we?
Must be why we finished up with Ben Davies!
We still have to buy a Gini replacement, because Leighton Clarkson will not amount to anything, and Jones is not the same kind of midfielder.
We still have to buy a CF if all of Origi/Wilson/Shaqiri leave.
Gomez is one of the best ball playing CBs in the league. Konate is a world famous top talent and a huge part of that reputation is built on his ability on the ball. If the below is not a claim someone is a good passer Iām fucking Messi. It was a bad opinion. And no this does not equal ādecentā it would mean Phillips was a world class long passer.
Needing a CM and a forward does not mean we donāt need a CB still. Separate issues.
Yeah we did just as a starting point we tried and nearly succeeded in signing Caleta-Car (even got as far as the airport before the deal collapsed as they couldnāt get a replacement), Botman (yet again no time forca replacement, also not enough time to sort out Origi going the other way as part of the deal) and David Carmo (but their board had an emergency meeting about it and eventually decided only triggering the release clause would do it as they didnāt have time for a replacement, something that probably meant the player could have avoided a horrific leg break otherwise). Theyāre just ones off the top of my head. All left footed LCBs who would partner Konate very well whilst VvD, Gomez and Matip work back to fitness.
Maybe if we pause for a breath and remember that Nat was available to play when we most needed someoneā¦ anyone!
The lad did his best with the limitations he hasā¦ but full marks to him he tried and tried and tried again, every single game he played in. As fans, that is all we could have asked of him, and to remember, the CB crisis that brought his appearances about was none of his making.
I can say with some confidence that without his efforts, we would NOT have made top 4ā¦
As for selling him on ASAP because his stock is high at the momentā¦ Maybe we need to remember two important issues here
