Kenny Dalglish offered his take on Nat Phillips, the defender loaned to Celtic from Liverpool, saying he “is not bad” after failing to tie down a place in the team so far.
Celtic sought Phillips’ services during a defensive crisis when they faced a spate of injuries sidelining Cameron Carter-Vickers, Maik Nawrocki, and Stephen Welsh. This left Gus Lagerbielke as the only available central defender until Liam Scales, the former Shamrock Rovers defender, surprisingly stepped up. Brendan Rodgers acknowledged Scales’ unexpected rise, with the 25-year-old defender starting in Celtic’s previous eight matches.
With Carter-Vickers back in the team in the recent two games, the immediate need for Phillips seems to be waning. Dalglish shared his views with the Daily Record, saying:
“They had a couple of problems. It is not unusual to get injuries in the same position, it just seems to happen to everybody.
“But the young boy Liam Scales has come in and he’s done well, Cameron Carter-Vickers is back and Phillips has come from Liverpool on loan. By the way, he’s not bad. He is alright.
“The difficult thing with that will be that Celtic have 80 per cent possession in most of the games. He wouldn’t get that at Liverpool. As much as Liverpool can dominate a game, not by 80 per cent too often. But he’s a good defender and a threat in the air at set-pieces as well.”
If Liam Scales keeps up his level of performance, and the other defenders keep fit, when it comes to reassessing Phillips’ loan in January, it will be likely that he’ll be sent back down to Merseyside.
