"It's unsettling but it is what it is" - 25-year-old player unsure about his future at Liverpool 

Liverpool defender Nathaniel Phillips has admitted that his future at the club is surrounded by uncertainty at the moment. The 25-year-old defender spent the last six months out on loan to EFL Championship outfit AFC Bournemouth.

Phillips has revealed that as things stand, there have been no talks between him and the Reds hierarchy. According to Transfermarkt, he currently has a contract at the club until the summer of 2025.

The centre-back, however, will be joining the Reds squad for pre-season games ahead of the 2022-23 season. Speaking exclusively to the Liverpool Echo, Phillips was quoted as saying the following:

“I think we’ll talk in pre-season. The season’s just ended, it’s summer and everyone is on a break. There’s not really been any discussions so far. I’ve switched off from football at the moment, other than watching and supporting the lads at Liverpool, so we’ll see what happens and what is said. But up until now, there haven’t been any conversations."

He added:

“It’s unsettling but it is what it is. I didn’t know where I was going to be but that’s the nature of the game, that’s football. I’m not the only person in the game who has not known where they are going to end up."

Phillips played a vital role for Liverpool last season when the Reds were hit by major injuries to Joel Matip, Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk. The defender played 20 times in the 2020-21 campaign, including three appearances in the UEFA Champions League.

After making just three appearances for the Reds until January, Phillips moved to Bournemouth for the second half of the season. He made 18 appearances there, helping the Cherries secure promotion back to the Premier League.

Phillips missed just one Championship game with Bournemouth and was involved for the full 90 minutes in the other 17 games he played in.

---

Liverpool have tremendous depth in the centre-back position

It comes as no surprise that Liverpool cannot afford to offer game time to the likes of Phillips and Rhys Williams. Jurgen Klopp has four top centre-backs at his disposal in Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip, Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez.

Van Dijk is the undisputed first-choice centre-back and hardly misses any games for the Reds throughout the course of the season. This leaves just one centre-back position open with three personnel fighting over that spot.

Matip was excellent throughout the season while Gomez also did a decent job as both a centre-back and right-back. Konate, meanwhile, arrived at Anfield last summer from RB Leipzig for a fee of around £36 million.

The French U-21 international has slowly established himself in the squad and even started the UEFA Champions League final against Real Madrid.