Jamie Carragher has described Nathaniel Phillips as 'real monster' following his impressive display against Wolves on Monday night.
Phillips spent the majority of last season on loan at Stuttgart in Germany and was heavily linked with a transfer away from Anfield in the summer.
The 23-year-old was well down the Liverpool pecking order and was reportedly subject of interest from the Bundesliga and Championship.
However, a deal never materialised and injuries to Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez thrust Phillips into the first-team picture. He made his Premier League debut against West Ham United back in October, and then his Champions League debut against RB Leipzig earlier this month.
Phillips once again started for the Reds in their 1-0 win over Wolves at Molineux, and Carragher was left more than impressed with what he saw from the defender.
He said: "He played a huge role in the game and he [Phillips] is a monster in the air.
"So when you talk about what Liverpool lack when other ones are playing, they get a great deal in terms of defending set-pieces and his ability in the air. He’s a real monster in that position."
The game was also the third time that Phillips has started alongside Ozan Kabak, and it marked the pair's third clean sheet in all competitions.
And Carragher, speaking on Sky Sports, added: "He [Klopp] mentioned the centre-backs there, two clean sheets on the bounce. I think the last three they’ve played together, all three have been clean sheets.
"I think being in that position myself as a young player, when you’re a young centre-back, you don’t want the fella next to you to be a young centre-back.
"It’s the same when you’re talking about old players as well, you want a nice balance.
“Certainly in that position, you want experience when you can get it, but Liverpool are not in a position to have that and I thought the two of them were really good tonight.
"What they did was they helped each other out. Now because they’re young, they’re going to make mistakes.
"Just little things that maybe I see through my experience and mistakes I made myself as a young player. But like I said, the great thing was the other one was always there to help them out."
After the win against Leipzig, Klopp also hailed Phillips, and said: "“In the air he is a monster and you could see today football-wise he is not bad."
