More tackles than Henderson: Liverpool may have just found their Matip replacement – Our View

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Liverpool beat Tottenham 3-1 on Thursday evening, but the one narrative that grabbed all of the headlines was Joel Matip’s injury during the game.

Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that the Cameroon international suffered ankle ligament damage against Spurs, and that could rule him out for a number of weeks.

Understandably, this has led to speculation and discussion about Liverpool now buying a centre-back, but there may be an in-house solution to their woes.

Indeed, Nat Phillips came on for Matip on Thursday, and he did a solid job at the back.

Phillips may have only played 45 minutes against Tottenham, but in that time he showed that he’s no slouch defensively, and while he’s not consistently proved he can play at Matip’s level, he certainly has the ability to keep top team’s quiet.

Phillips made two tackles and one interception, and that’s a higher tackling tally than his centre-half partner Jordan Henderson made during the entire game, despite the fact he played the full 90 minutes.

Yes, Phillips didn’t manage to keep a clean sheet, but there was very little he could do about Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s wonder strike in the second half.

Hojbjerg’s goal aside, Phillips did a great job of keeping Tottenham at bay, and this wasn’t against a poor frontline, he was contending with the likes of Heung-min Son, Steven Bergwijn and Gareth Bale.

Of course, there is more to being a Liverpool centre-back than just keeping the ball out of the net, you have to be able to play out from the back, and from time to time act as a deep-lying playmaker.

Phillips seems to have that ability in his locker as well, with an 85 per cent pass accuracy and two of his four long ball attempts being accurate, in comparison, Henderson had just two of seven long ball attempts find the mark against Spurs, while Andy Robertson had 0 out of four.

Matip will be missed in the coming weeks, but Liverpool may have just found the man to replace him and he’s not a player they need to spend a transfer fee on.