Liverpool used the pairing of Ozan Kabak and Nathaniel Phillips in central defence vs Leipzig in midweek and thankfully the duo came out with flying colours.
The Reds have been without Van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip for most of the season and after using midfielders in central defence for a series of matches, Klopp was finally able to use two proper centre-backs. And by the looks of it, Ozan Kabak & Nathaniel Phillips have done more than a decent job to keep their place in the line-up for Liverpool’s upcoming Premier League fixture vs Wolves.
When asked about using the pair at Molinuex and in the future as well, the manager said in his pre-match press conference: “I hope they will stay fit, I cannot sit here and give guarantees for these kind of things. I heard nothing different so far, so I think they will be available.
“And it looked good and if they are physically ready to go again, which I hope, then why should we change it? That’s clear. You want to have consistency and we never had. How I said, that looked really good. Of course, hopefully they can play a lot of games, if not all of the rest. But if not, then we have to find solutions again and Rhys Williams, I don’t want to forget him, he’s in a good moment, Ben Davies has to adapt, it was always clear.
“A lot of players came here to Liverpool and the most famous story is maybe Andy Robertson and it took him half a year in a normal season, where pretty much everything else was kind of settled, to settle in.
“Ben is a really good player but he has to get used to all the stuff here as well and these kind of things. That’s how it is. What we have now still [are] options and hopefully it will stay like this.
“As a centre-half if you can pick up the right challenges and you can pick up the right balls because the balls are forced or kind of defended already from the players in front of you, that makes life much more easy. That’s how football should be actually. In the end you speak about the centre-halves in a positive way, which is good, but it was about the general defending of that day and that helped the two boys a lot.”
Ozan Kabak was an emergency buy during the January window but the defender has settled in very quickly and if he and Phillips can keep a clean sheet against Wolves as well then the pair will automatically become the first-choice central defenders for Liverpool. This selection also allows Klopp to use Fabinho in his usual defensive midfielder’s role which helps provide the backline with an extra layer of protection.
Wolves have been really inconsistent this season and are winless in their last three league matches so this is the perfect opportunity for Ozan Kabak and Nathaniel Phillips to get some confidence under their belt.
