Liverpool journalist James Pearce has given his take on the situation surrounding Nat Phillips at the club following moves around the team.
The 24-year-old managed to make some inroads into the first-team last season, making 20 appearances whilst the club were going through a crisis at the back with the number of injuries that were piling up, earning some rather high praise along the way for his performances.
Those injuries have since been abated, and with the introduction of Ibrahima Konaté as well, that means that he is likely going to slide down the pecking order at the club.
Speaking about the situation on The Red Agenda podcast as it pertained to the recent loan move by Ben Davies to Sheffield United, Pearce claimed that Phillips might be on the way out of the club at some point as well if the club receive a decent offer:
“I was told that Liverpool are still open to offers for Nat Phillips. Of course, with Konaté, they’ve got four elite centre-backs there, they’ve also got Rhys Williams as a fifth option at the moment.
“There’s been loads of interest in Nat Phillips, but no suitable offers on the table as of yet, but I think I’d expect that to change the closer we get to the deadline.”
TIF Thoughts on James Pearce’s comments about Nat Phillips…
What should Liverpool do with Nat Phillips this summer?
Keep him in the squad
Loan him out
Sell him
Given the fitness scares that Liverpool had last season, even if Phillips is the fifth-choice centre-back, it probably would be safe for them to keep him on the books for this season, because you never know if one of the injuries from last season is going to flare up again.
And whilst having four ‘elite’ defenders appears enough to rotate them across all four competitions when needed, all it takes is for one of them to go down and all of a sudden, they are going to be stretched again.
So whilst the club may have been right to loan out Davies to stop there being too many, letting Phillips go would probably leave them with not enough, so it’s perhaps best to stay on the safe side for the time being.
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