Nat Phillips managed to replace Virgil van Dijk vs Brighton

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Nat Phillips gave a performance reminiscent of Virgil van Dijk against Brighton on Saturday. The 23-year-old made on his second Premier League start.

Liverpool ask a lot of Nat Phillips – especially on a day like Saturday against Brighton. The 23-year-old started alongside Fabinho, meaning he was actually the more experienced centre-half.

Fabinho is naturally a holding midfielder, of course, where Phillips has played centre-half his entire career.

Yet Phillips is still very inexperienced. This was just his second ever Premier League start and third total for Liverpool. But he was fantastic.

The headline stat is that Phillips won eight headers in the game. That was twice as many as every other defender in the game – combined.

He did it at a high success rate, too – 73%. That was the third highest on the pitch. It wasn’t just a case of quantity over quality, then. Phillips was great in both regards.

But that wasn’t even the full extent of his performance. Phillips also won four tackles, the second most in the game and twice as many as any other Liverpool player.

He also intercepted the ball twice. That, again, is joint-second for the game and only Andy Robertson matched that in Red.

Van Dijk-esque

This was the closest we’ve seen to a ‘Virgil van Dijk’ performance. Van Dijk is the dominant aerial defender at Liverpool and they’ve lacked that presence since his injury.

Phillips winning a monstrous eight headers replicated that (per Whoscored). He dominated in the air against Brighton, after doing similar against West Ham United.

Phillips won five headers in that game – the join-most on the pitch and two more than any teammate.

It’s clear that the defender excels at it, then. The really encouraging thing being that his game is more than just winning headers – he can tackle and intercept, too.

Will Phillips ever be at Van Dijk’s level? Almost certainly not – stats aren’t the whole story, after all..

But he is showing an ability to deliver in similar regard. That will prove vital over the next few months as Liverpool prepare for the transfer window.