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

Nat Phillips arrived at Celtic while we were in the midst of a defensive crisis and despite him not having played first team football for a while, he was seen by many as a decent signing, myself included.

The big defender wasn’t a Liverpool player for nothing, he obviously had the talent, but sadly we never saw that, well apart from the Lazio game at Celtic Park, a game I thought he did ok in.

Nat is a big strong, no nonsense centre back a bit like Shane Duffy, and we all know how the Irishman’s time at Celtic turned out. Both players have performed well in the EPL, they are obviously decent players, they wouldn’t be playing at that level if they weren’t.

But our football is a different ball game, especially playing for a club like Celtic. Players from down south think it’s easy from the outside, but the reality is completely different. Both players were badly exposed and it badly affected their confidence. Shane Duffy is regarded as one of the worst ever centre backs – in terms performance  – to have played at the club and it’s hard to disagree with that assessment.

Same goes for Nat, his performance in the 2-1 defeat at Rugby Park was pretty dreadful. It really was, he looked far out of his depth and it was no surprise it was his last ever appearance for the club.

Nevertheless, both Phillips and Duffy are still good players, but it was just  a case of Celtic not being right for them and of course bad timing, especially in the case of Shane.