Rhys Williams deserves special recognition for Old Trafford display

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Rhys Williams absolutely deserves some special praise for his performance at Old Trafford. The youngster faced Manchester United’s best and won.

Jurgen Klopp had one impossible decision heading into this game – who partners Nat Phillips. Ozan Kabak had an injury, ruling him out and throwing up the question.

There were two clear candidates. The ‘safe’ option was Fabinho. Everyone knew he could play the role well and handle Manchester United’s best forwards. The problem was that putting him there left a gaping hole in midfield. No one else can play the holding role adequately with Jordan Henderson missing.

And so Klopp went with the riskier option – he started Rhys Williams at Old Trafford.

Rhys Williams wins at Old Trafford

Phillips is not an experienced player. He was at Stuttgart in Bundesliga 2. last season and he’s been learning on the job with Liverpool over this campaign.

And yet he has far more than Williams. The youngster was at Kidderminster Harriers in the National League last season. It’s about as far away from Premier League as you can get at the professional level.

Now, this wasn’t Williams’ debut. He’s played some reasonably big games this season already. In fact, this wasn’t even his first game at Old Trafford.

He played there in the FA Cup in late January but didn’t play well. Liverpool lost 3-2 and Williams struggled quite badly. He didn’t feature again for a month after that and only twice between then and the win over Southampton at the weekend.

This is a long way of saying that Williams was in no place to have any expectation of him. He returned to a stadium where he looked out of his depth earlier in the season and still with very little experience.

And here he was up against Edinson Cavani, Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba. The fact he helped deliver a win, then, is quite remarkable.

Williams was far from flawless but he held his own. He made a tackle, an interception, four clearances and wasn’t dribbled once. He kept the ball very well, too, at 90%. Only Gini Wijnaldum beat that from either side.

So we think Williams deserves plenty of credit for this. This game should have been well above his level but he stepped up to play his part. Klopp placed his faith in him and Williams delivered.

We’d have few complaints if he retained his place in Kabak’s absence.