What a bittersweet 12 months it has been for Nat Phillips at Liverpool.
The 24-year-old was a massive player for the Reds last season and ultimately played a big role in helping Jurgen Klopp’s side qualify for the Champions League.
In fact, you could argue that Phillips was Liverpool’s best central defender in a freak campaign which saw Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez miss virtually the whole season, while Joel Matip spent a chunk of it out injured, too.
Fast forward to now and, well, Phillips is very much a forgotten man these days.
Not only are Van Dijk, Gomez and Matip fighting fit this season, but Liverpool also signed Ibrahima Konate this past summer.
As a result, Phillips has cruelly dropped down the pecking order in a horrendous way and hasn’t kicked a ball under Klopp in any competition since the 2020-21 campaign.
His first appearance of the campaign came last night when the Reds’ Under-21 side were hammered 4-1 by Bolton Wanderers in the EFL Trophy.
This is a man who played every minute of Liverpool’s five-game winning streak at the end of last season – including the 4-2 win at Manchester United – as Klopp’s side finished third in the table.
So for him to be reduced to reserve football, and being on the receiving end of hammerings by lower-league opposition, is quite a sobering fall from grace in such a short period of time.
And here’s how some fans of the Anfield club reacted to his participation in last night’s defeat:
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