Nat Phillips could be forgiven for wondering exactly what he’s done wrong.
Talk about highs and lows. He may have been one of the stars of Liverpool’s revival last season, but he’s Anfield’s forgotten man at the moment.
Until this week, in fact, he was the only member of the Reds’ first-team squad – aside from the third and fourth-choice goalkeepers, Adrian and Loris Karius – without a single minute of competitive action this season.
That’s no longer the case, at least. On Tuesday night, in the familiar surroundings of the University of Bolton Stadium, and in the unfamiliar world of the Papa John’s Trophy, Phillips belatedly got his campaign up and running.
“Stiff!” was the 24-year-old’s assessment afterwards. He had begun to cramp up towards the end of Liverpool’s 4-1 defeat against his former club.
Understandable really, given it was his first 90-minute run-out since May, when he had helped Liverpool secure Champions League qualification with a final-day win over Crystal Palace.
There were 10,000 supporters at Anfield that day, but only around 2,000 braved the strong winds and biblical rain at Bolton. Among them were a handful of loyal Liverpudlians, as well as Phillips’ girlfriend Molly, the daughter of ex-Oasis star Liam Gallagher.
Phillips, selected as an overage player, captained a young Liverpool side which was missing a host of key men. The likes of Mateusz Musialowski, James Balagizi, Conor Bradley, Owen Beck, goalkeeper Harvey Davies, regular skipper Tom Clayton and teenage whizzkid Kaide Gordon were all away on international duty, leaving Barry Lewtas’ side even shorter than usual, in terms of experience.
Phillips’ presence, then, was welcome, especially alongside Jarell Quansah, who was also making his first start of the season. And it was his decision to make himself available for the game.
"The first-team staff spoke to us and said Nat was keen to play,” Lewtas said afterwards. “The group is here for that as well, to give lads minutes.
"We have had a massive amount of games as a lot of our lads played in the UEFA Youth League as well, so it was a chance to give Billy Koumetio a bit of a breather.
"It was Jarell's first start back from injury, so to have Nat alongside him was really good. I thought they were brilliant in the first half.”
For both manager and player, it was something of a homecoming. “Just like the old days,” smiled Lewtas, remembering his days as coach of a Bolton U14s side which included Phillips as its right-back.
He’s very much a centre-back now, of course, and proved last season that he’s one capable of playing in the Premier League. Pressed into action due to an unprecedented injury crisis at Liverpool, Phillips let nobody down.
He played 20 times in all competitions, impressing against the likes of Karim Benzema, Edinson Cavani and Alexandre Lacazette, among others. That last competitive outing in May saw him successfully shackle Wilfried Zaha, and four days earlier he’d scored his first professional goal at Burnley.
Tuesday brought a different kind of test, the senior member of a squad in which only five other players – left-back Tony Gallacher, midfielders Elijah Dixon-Bonner and Tyler Morton, forward Jack Bearne and substitute centre-back Koumetio – could boast any kind of senior experience.
Rather than Benzema or Cavani, Phillips was instead marking Nathan Delfouneso, once a highly-rated prospect at Aston Villa, now a 30-year-old for whom Bolton are his 10th professional club.
There were early signs of Philips’ Liverpool class: a diagonal speared out to Gallacher was followed by a line-breaking ball rapped into the feet of Max Woltman. Phillips’ passing, it has to be said, has improved dramatically in the past 12 months.
Defending will always be his bread and butter, though, and it was there that he made his most telling contribution to the first half, positioning himself superbly to block a goal-bound effort from Josh Sheehan with his chest.
He could do little to stop Delfouneso opening the scoring, the striker alert to head home a driven cross from Harry Brockbank before the break, but he and Quansah generally coped well, with both looking to play the ball into midfield as opposed to going long.
The second half followed a familiar pattern, where Papa John’s games are concerned. Liverpool played well between the boxes, passing the ball through midfield nicely without ever really looking like scoring. Then, as the youngsters tired and lost concentration, they were punished.
Phillips had made some crucial interventions – with his head, of course – but Bolton extended their lead through substitute Amadou Bakayoko, before Quansah put through his own net, unable to move his feet quickly enough to react to a volleyed cross from the right.
Dixon-Bonner, Liverpool’s standout performer on the night, pulled a goal back before a mix-up between Koumetio and Brazilian goalkeeper Marcelo Pitaluga led to a penalty which Bakayoko converted to complete the scoring.
For Phillips, it was a useful exercise. With Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip, Joe Gomez and new signing Ibrahima Konate all ahead of him in the pecking order at present, first-team chances are likely to be severely limited this season. He has been on the bench four times so far, but is yet to play a single minute.
At Carrow Road last month, as Liverpool beat Norwich in the third round of the Carabao Cup, Phillips was pictured in conversation with Ozan Kabak, as the two warmed up on the sideline.
Friends reunited earlier.
— Neil Jones (@neiljonesgoal) September 21, 2021
Nat Phillips and Ozan Kabak catch up at Carrow Road 🔴 pic.twitter.com/LR9qRoFuot
Those two had teamed up well in a crisis at Liverpool last season, but both have discovered that sentiment in football rarely lasts. The Reds had no intention of making Kabak’s loan from Schalke permanent, and while they rewarded Phillips for his performances with a new four-year contract in August, he is well aware that opportunities will be scarce.
He had expected to leave in the summer, when clubs such as Brighton, Burnley, Newcastle and Stuttgart had all expressed interest. Even in the final days of the transfer window, a loan to the Championship had appeared the likeliest outcome.
Instead, Liverpool let Rhys Williams join Swansea for the season, retaining Phillips as emergency cover.
Not an ideal situation for the player – despite the obvious benefits of a pay-rise and the extra security his new deal provides – but one he has accepted with typical maturity.
“Nat is a fantastic young man,” said Lewtas. “And for him to come in, and train with us properly for the last few days, it's been great to have him around.”
It will be interesting to see if this is Phillips’ last U21s/U23s appearance this season. Usually, he’d have an eye on the senior side’s trip to Preston in the Carabao Cup on October 27, but Klopp went with Gomez and Konate in the last round, and both are still, for the time being at least, fit and available.
Mind you, if anyone knows how quickly things can change in that regard, it’s Phillips.
And whether it’s a crunch clash at Old Trafford, a Champions League test in Madrid or a rainy night in Bolton, he’ll be ready.
