Nat Phillips and Shane Duffy – Both decent players but not right for Celtic

Even though Nat Phillips hadn’t played for the first team in a while, many, including myself, thought he was a decent purchase when he came to Celtic during our defense crisis.

With the exception of the Lazio game at Celtic Park, which I thought he performed fairly well in, the huge defender wasn’t a Liverpool player for nothing; he clearly had the talent, but tragically we never saw it.

Like Shane Duffy, Nat is a large, strong, no-nonsense center defender, and we all know how that Irishman’s Celtic career ended. Both players have shown promise in the Premier League; if they weren’t good players, they wouldn’t be competing at such a high level.

Pictured by Andrew Milligan
But playing football for a team like Celtic is a whole other ball game. From the outside, southern players believe it to be simple, but the reality is very different. Both players suffered significant exposure, which negatively impacted their self-esteem. Hard to argue with the opinion that Shane Duffy was among the worst center backs the team has ever had, both in terms of performance and stats.

Likewise, Nat gave a really poor effort in the 2-1 loss at Rugby Park. It was evident that he was uncomfortable and that this was his final performance for the team.

Even still, Phillips and Duffy are still talented players; Shane in particular, it was simply a matter of Celtic not being the ideal fit for them and unfortunate timing.

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