Jurgen Klopp had some incredible things to say about Nat Phillips on Friday. The Liverpool boss compares the player to Robert Lewandowski.
It’s not easy to find a similarity between Nat Phillips and Robert Lewandowski. One has around six months of top-flight football under his belt and the other is one of the greatest players of his generation.
And that’s before you get to the centre-back / striker thing.
But Jurgen Klopp does see a comparison. He’s worked closely with both, after all, and feels the two of them may be the best examples of development he’s ever seen.
“People often ask me which player made the biggest improvements under my leadership, and I say Robert Lewandowski,” said Klopp, per the Liverpool Echo.
“That’s probably right, but not far off that is Nat Phillips, just in a completely different department.”
“He’s a late starter, but his development is unbelievable,” he went on to say. “I would sign him for any club except Liverpool because we have him.”
It’s not exactly a secret that Klopp loves Phillips but this is remarkably high praise. It’s hard to argue with, however.
Just how good is Nat Phillips?
This time a year ago, it was easy to forget that Phillips was on the books at Liverpool. Thanks God he was, though, as the Reds would soon need him quite desperately.
Phillips was a 23-year-old who had never played top-flight football. Yet Liverpool had him down as their fifth-choice centre-back – though, he’d only play if a bizarre injury crisis took place that left them without any senior options.
That actually happened, of course, as unbelievable as it still seems. The Reds would then turn to the wildly inexperienced Phillips to help them through the season.
Somehow, he did just that as the senior partner alongside the equally-inexperienced Rhys Williams. The two of them eventually saw Liverpool finish third – and that’s quite incredible.
Phillips went from a player few knew about to a centre-back capable of delivering a third-place finish in the Premier League. In that context, he’s undoubtedly a fine example of rapid development.
Of course, Phillips rarely plays for Liverpool now that everyone is back. But he’s still linked with Premier League clubs such as Newcastle United.
And with a reported £15m price tag on his head, Liverpool could secure quite a fee for him. That, again, proves Klopp’s point. Would anyone have bid anything like that for Phillips a year ago? Of course not. But the centre-back has undergone an unbelievable development.
That certainly deserves applause.
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