Jurgen Klopp has hailed Nat Phillips after a flawless Premier League debut for Liverpool.
Phillips slotted into the Reds’ defence for Saturday’s 2-1 win over West Ham in place of an injured Fabinho, who had been deputising for Virgil van Dijk.
The 23-year-old’s commanding performance earned him the Man of the Match award in the Anfield encounter on only his maiden top-flight appearance.
And Klopp was full of praise for the qualities Phillips demonstrated against the Hammers despite conceding his style is not aesthetically pleasing to some.
He said: “The story behind him makes it even more incredible. I’m really pleased for him, he deserves it more than anybody.
“He’s a brilliant guy, smart guy, intelligent, everything. He knows everything about himself as a footballer. He kept it really simple tonight, which was important for us.
“He’s not easy on the eye, he’s not [Lionel] Messi but who cares? In the air, he’s a monster! He was incredible.
“He was vocal on the pitch and spoke really well, he made the challenges, he was there and was aggressive.
“He maybe gave away one foul and played a really good game.”
Liverpool’s return to the Premier League summit coincided with the government announcing a second UK-wide lockdown to combat coronavirus.
Four of the league champions’ players tested positive for Covid-19 this month including Xherdan Shaqiri, who assisted Diogo Jota for his late winning goal.
But Klopp welcomed news that the English top flight will to continue behind closed doors under the new restrictions that currently expire on December 2.
“It is obviously what we want and I think we proved that we can keep the bubble kind of safe,” said the Liverpool manager.
“Yes, we had cases. Everybody had cases pretty much, that’s the time we are in – but we could isolate these cases pretty quickly.
“It didn’t spread or whatever [and] these kind of things didn’t happen so far, so things never happened at the training ground.
“They happened when [players were] travelling with national teams or when players came new to the club and had to do some travels and brought people, all these kind of things, normal life.
“I think we proved that we can do it and I think as well, in a lockdown it’s really important for the people that they can do things they like to do, and watching football is obviously something they like to do so I am happy that we can continue.”