Derby County boss Paul Warne has insisted that he has no intention of keeping Liverpool loan star Nat Phillips out of the starting eleven, but challenged him to fight his way in.
Liverpool have been open to selling Phillips over several transfer windows, but he completed a loan exit in the summer by dropping into the Championship with Derby.
However, Phillips has featured only four times for Derby so far this season and has started only one game.
Warne thinks that the standard of the Derby centre-backs has improved a lot since Phillips’ arrival, which now the Reds star has to match to get into the starting line-up.
The Derby boss also insisted that he has no intention of keeping Liverpool’s Phillips out of the starting line-up but indicated that the defender has to prove himself.
“What has also happened which pleased me, like Nat has not played many minutes yet but I have not brought him in not to play but he has to get in”, Warne told Derby County’s in-house media.
“Whether that has increased the standard of the two or three other centre halves, I don’t know, but the actual standard in training has improved a lot.”
Phillips has featured for a total of 112 minutes for Derby so far and will be hoping that he can impress Warne on the training ground to seal a spot in the starting line-up.
