24 Aug 2021 10:12:06
We should keep Nat Phillips. By letting him go we are basically ditching the league and Fa cups. It's highly unlikely we can keep the 4 cbs fit and on form all season. We can't afford to get to a stage where 2 or the 4 are missing and we are forced to play Williams with Fab again. I am ok with not signing anyone but if that's the case Phillips must be kept until at least January.
24 Aug 2021 10:18:02
I thought Nat was in the last year of his contract? I thought LFC would look to cash in on him this summer, I doubt he would sign a new deal to remain 5th choice. I think Rhys Williams needs to step up to be 5th choice, Nat is too good to be 5th choice in all fairness and should be playing every week somewhere.
{Ed002's Note - No he is not in the last year of his contract.}
24 Aug 2021 10:22:58
What if Phillips loses form or we keep him and he is one of the four centre backs to get injured? What if we have three of our first four centre halves fit at any one time during the season? Would you be happy for us to stop his career dead in it’s tracks when it could very well take off with regular football?
24 Aug 2021 10:29:00
We are ditching the league if we let our 5th choice CB go? He deserves to play regularly and we should let him go for his own sake. We also have Rhys Williams (who may go on loan) .
24 Aug 2021 10:35:04
@WDW please get over it. There are a lot of these posts because Ed002 has said it previously about the likes of Grujic but this is different.
Grujic was promised by Klopp he would play and got loans then to different teams and at no stage was he in Klopp's immediate plans. That is a situation where the players career has been negatively impacted by Klopp promising one thing and doing another.
Nat was at best getting a championship club 12 months ago and not many clubs were pushing hard for him. Now he is seen as plenty good enough for the premier league so his career has a much better chance of being successful. 4 months of being 5th choice centre back at a club with unreliable centre back injury records will not "stop his career dead in it's tracks".
Apologies this is not just for you WDW there are others posting the same as well I know.
24 Aug 2021 10:49:42
The guy needs to get the respect he's earned and given a chance to move on for his own career.
24 Aug 2021 11:00:39
I feel like this post must've been sent in 2 months ago before we signed Konate, and Ed025 (in his old age) has only just finished proof reading it.
Just pulling your leg markp08, but i am not worried at centre back. We have Van Dijk, Matip, Gomez and Konate which is 4 top quality players. Williams hopefully gets to focus on u23's football for a season with a few cup games thrown in.
I don't think we'll see as much injury bad luck in one position again in years. We lost all 3 senior centre backs, then the 2 midfielders who were covering there, and then both the centre backs we signed in January! It was absolutely mental and unprecedented to lose 7 players in one position in a single season.
We can't have more than 4 senior centre backs "just incase" it happens again. Not unless we're planning on going to a back 3. It's unrealistic to expect that in my opinion.
24 Aug 2021 11:05:35
You want 6 players for 2 positions?
24 Aug 2021 11:23:41
Not sure if Phillips would want to stay just to play in the League cup. If we only keeping him till Jan then he would only get one game in the FA cup. And the way we’ve taken domestic cups in recent years he might only get one game in the league cup.
24 Aug 2021 11:54:52
Sign him on a new contract, loan him to a PL club for a season. Review next Summer. Win, win in my eyes.
{Ed002's Note - There will be no plans to have him sign a new contract and Liverpool are trying to sell him. For me it would have been better to keep NP and sell Matip - but that is not what Klopp wants.}
24 Aug 2021 12:25:18
Ed002, it does make much better since for a few reasons to sell Matip and keep Phillips, I agree 100%. I like Matip and would hate to see him go, but it would be better business.
24 Aug 2021 12:46:45
Disagree, VVD/ Matip is the best CB pairing that Liverpool have. I know that Matip has a bad injury history but the recruitment of Konate should mitigate that.
24 Aug 2021 13:00:36
Matip is injured half the time and VvD and Gomez are both just back from long-term injuries. This is the time to keep Nat for 4 months, right now just in case. Konate also has had some injury issues so far in his career.
Nat's career is going to be a lot better because he did so well for us last season. If our centre backs have any relapses or injury setbacks it is most likely to be in the coming months in terms of VvD and Gomez.
Keep Nat for 4 months for cover. 4 months will not ruin his career lads, it's 4 months not 4 years.
Rhys is a 20 year old kid who stepped in to help the team last season when we were desperately short. Now he should continue to develop either with the under 23s or go on loan. This isn't saying don't play youth, it's just not every player is ready at the same age.
24 Aug 2021 13:09:20
Sorry Sean Ireland, I have no idea what you are talking about. No idea what the reference is to Grujic and I can’t see it has any relevance to the 5th or 6th choice centre half in 2921.
We have VVD, Matip, Konate, Gomez, Fabs (who I reckon Klopp would select as 5th choice based on the evidence of last season), Philips and Williams.
Phillips isn’t going to get a game - in the 50 years I’ve been watching Liverpool I can’t recall so many injuries in one position in such a short space of time - it is only fair to the lad to let him go and get game time, in my opinion.
As Ed02 says above, the club aren’t looking to renew his contract and will accept a decent offer. He isn’t going to get a game and it is detrimental to his career not to be playing. Just because some seem to want to have 7 or 8 options for each position doesn’t make it either viable or the best thing for the careers of the players concerned.
Apologies Sean, there are lots of other people writing stuff like you although I tend to understand most a bit better than your post as they don’t always pull random irrelevant past players names out of the air for no real reason.
24 Aug 2021 13:38:33
Trying convince fans on here that we should sell Matip and keep Phillips is unfortunately barking up the wrong tree. It’s Klopp that’s the one that needs convincing and as it stands it looks like Klopp believes Matip is 1 of our 2 best starting centre half’s whilst Phillips can’t get into the squad.
24 Aug 2021 13:44:14
I disagree with most of the replies. I think it’s a near certainty 2 of 4 will be missing at some stage. Then a run of massive games come up and a couple of cup games. Who plays in the cup games? It would be Williams and Fab, yeah awesome good luck with that. The pl will be won this year by fine margins, this is a risk not worth taking.
24 Aug 2021 13:56:31
@WDW in terms of Grujic, he is a recent example of a Liverpool player whose career has been negatively impacted by Klopp promising him he would play him and then he did not play him. That is a clear example of Liverpool/ Klopp stalling a players career and I am saying 4 months for Nat is not like this. It's just 4 months.
Also WDW, Nat is 5th choice not 7th or 8th choice. He finished the season ahead of Fabinho in the centre back pecking order and he clearly proved himself. We need to keep Fabinho in midfield, he is crucial there.
Not sure if I am clearer in my opinion this time? I don't want to post a book to try explain myself 😂.
24 Aug 2021 14:00:58
Mark there are only a couple of reasons to sell Phillips this summer and they are all to do with money not on what is best for his career or the fact we could end up or would like to use him if there’s injuries. What remains to be seen is whether the money made selling him is to then be used to recruit or whether it’s to further balance the books.
24 Aug 2021 17:11:32
Personally I’d just play the under 23’s in the cup games. The financial returns for playing in them aren’t worth risking any first team players at the cost of league or champions league. Concentrate on the two big prizes, they’re the bread and butter, the cups are just a side distraction.
Personally Mark, I’m a fan of Phillips no nonsense style and I’d like him to stay, but it is what it is.
24 Aug 2021 18:30:44
I agree with stones VVD and Matip/ Gomez are the best proven CB partnership with Konate and Williams still on the wings Nat needs to be sold to open up space for other possibilities.
24 Aug 2021 18:31:21
Why can't we take the 2 domestic cups serious, for a change. City and Chelsea do. We have 4 centre backs, if they stay fit, to juggle about throughout the season.