Creative Liverpool show their best side with Nathaniel Phillips deal

Creative Liverpool have shown their best side with the negotiations to bring Nathaniel Phillips in for one game and send him back.

Turns out the winter break has been very useful for the Reds, who used it to the best of their ability to engineer that quick switcheroo to plug a gap that badly needed filling.

The FA Cup game against Everton was also going to be a tricky one, especially with how many defenders are currently out injured. Virgil van Dijk needed a rest, Dejan Lovren and Joel Matip were out and Sepp van den Berg or Ki-Jana Hoever not considered.

But there was one lad out on loan in Germany, who had a winter break, and with whom Liverpool had a good relationship: Nathaniel Phillips.

Phillips, at 22-years-old, is on the first loan spell of his career but had done fairly well for Stuttgart and didn’t really looked phased by what was asked of him. Jurgen Klopp brought him back for one game, the Merseyside Derby, and then sent him back. What a way to make your debut.

Sven Mislintat, the VfB sporting director and once of Arsenal, credited an excellent relationship between the two sides for being able to get the deal done but it also shows the creative side to Liverpool.

You don’t see this type of thing happening very often, and it’s some excellent outside-the-box thinking. It’s good for the player too, who now doesn’t face the threat of sitting on the bench and stagnating for the second half of the season.

Phillips will now continue to grow via first team football in the German second tier, he will work alongside experienced players and it will give him the chance to launch his own professional career. It will end up being a good deal for all involved.