Nat Phillips has had one of the stranger Liverpool careers of modern times. The 27-year-old is out on loan yet again in 2024/25 but has not been playing that often for Derby County, his temporary home.
Phillips has made 29 appearances for the Reds over the years. He has played five games in the Champions League, including two full matches against Real Madrid. The center-back also pulled off a Cruyff turn in his own penalty box at the San Siro, which went down in legend.
Despite having 19 Premier League games under his belt on top of this European experience, Phillips is struggling to get playing time for a mid-table Championship outfit. There is a danger that another season of his career will go to waste if he cannot force his way into the Rams’ backline.
Derby boss Paul Warne explained why Phillips hasn’t been playing when speaking to the club’s YouTube channel earlier this week. He laid down a challenge to the on-loan Liverpool defender.
“What has also happened which pleased me, like Nat has not played many minutes yet but I have not brought him in not to play, but he has to get in,” he said (via the72.co.uk). “Whether that has increased the standard of the two or three other centre-halves, I don’t know, but the actual standard in training has improved a lot,” Warne added.
It seems clear that Phillips will never become a regular for Liverpool. The loan to Derby is the sixth of his career, with the Bolton-born defender also representing Stuttgart (across two spells), Bournemouth, Celtic and Cardiff City.
He made his debut for Derby against the latter, getting an eight-minute run out from the bench. Phillips has also made cameos against Sheffield United and Queens Park Rangers, leaving a 2-0 defeat at Sunderland his only start to date. Even then he was withdrawn after 75 minutes thanks to an injury, per Transfermarkt.
Liverpool has 14 other players out on loan this season, some of whom are far younger than Phillips while also playing more regularly. For instance, 20 year old Luke Chambers has already made 10 appearances for Wigan, while teenager Lewis Koumas has featured in eight games for Stoke City. Ben Doak has played five matches for Championship side Middlesbrough too.
Phillips will always be remembered fondly at Liverpool for the remarkable effort he and Rhys Williams put in to help the Reds finish third in very difficult circumstances in 2020/21. But for the sake of his career, he needs to rise to Warne’s challenge and start playing regularly for Derby.