As always, with any dropped points, every player comes under the microscope at Celtic and every player is immediately assessed by the fans.

But this time, it’s not the fans who are delivering their verdict on Nat Phillips, it’s the Celtic manager, Brendan Rodgers.

 

The Hoops gaffer was asked his opinion on the 26-year-old on-loan Liverpool defender and whilst he was reluctant to be too critical, Rodgers did try to give an honest assessment of the English defender.

Rodgers said [The Scotsman], “I think Nat played like the team.

“In the first half, he was dominant in the air and he was physically strong. The two centre-halves were good together and dealt with the aerial threat. It was fine.

“We just went a little bit negative in the second half and ended up conceding the two goals and he was unfortunate with the own goal.”

Nat Phillips will return to Liverpool after failing to impress at Celtic
Brought in as emergency defensive cover in the summer, Phillips has failed to do anything of note to prove that he is worthy of an extension to his current loan deal.

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The 26-year-old is due to return to Merseyside at the end of December and despite being preferred to Maik Nawrocki and Gustaf Lagerbielke, Phillips has failed to nail down a starting spot ahead of the impressive Liam Scales.

Phillips came to Celtic clearly lacking in match fitness and, truth be told, looking at his performance against Kilmarnock yesterday, he still looked well off the pace in terms of match sharpness and running.

For me, I believe he will be one of the players that will leave Celtic in January. With over £7m worth of his own defenders on the bench, Rodgers has no real reason to keep Phillips at the club considering he has struggled to match a material impact in his short time there.

In other news, Celtic told to go and sign 26-year-old Kilmarnock player after yesterday’s defeat