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Former Reds duo Peter Crouch and Stephen Warnock both praised Liverpool’s Nat Phillips for his individual performance last night in the Champions League.

The 23-year-old defender remarkably made his debut in the competition on Wednesday during Liverpool’s 2-0 victory against RB Leipzig.

Jurgen Klopp’s side buried some of their recent demons by booking a spot in the Champions League quarter-finals, as they thrashed German club Leipzig 4-0 on aggregate.

Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane both scored to give the Reds a win at a time when they’ve been horrendous in the Premier League.

The Merseyside giants have remarkably lost six from seven in the league, but they showed their European pedigree in midweek and will hope it can act as a catalyst to turn their season around.

A couple of ex-Liverpool players gave a special mention to centre-back Phillips for his individual contribution.

Warnock gave an in-depth assessment post-match where he described the Englishman as “outstanding”:

“I thought Nat Phillips was outstanding – he won anything that game into the box in the air, and low down I thought he challenged for every single ball. He didn’t give the forwards a moments peace,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live (10:02pm, 10 March).

Crouch added:

“Honestly, for a Champions League debut he didn’t put a foot wrong,” he told BT Sport 2 (10:12pm, 10 March).

TBR’s View:

It’s going to be difficult for Liverpool to go far in this season’s Champions League with so many of their senior centre-backs injured, but it was a real coming of age display from Phillips last night.

The centre-half wouldn’t have imagined an opportunity in the first team at Anfield this season, but he’s been gifted the chance and looked the part on the European stage against Leipzig.

He’s an old fashioned defender that appeared to get his head on everything with a real commanding performance. Additionally, there were encouraging signs of a potential combination forming in the heart of defence alongside Ozan Kabak.