St Johnstone are keen to tie Dan Phillips down on a new long-term deal, manager Steven MacLean has revealed.
The Perth midfielder has made an impressive start to the season and has captained the side when Liam Gordon hasn’t been on the pitch.
The Trinidad and Tobago international’s blossoming partnership with Sven Sprangler in the middle of the park will be key to Saints’ hopes of Premiership survival.
Phillips, who arrived at McDiarmid Park as a free agent just over a year ago, is now into the last year of his contract.
And MacLean is hoping that an extension can be agreed.
“We’ve spoken about Daniel and what we want to do about his future,” he said.
“We’re clear that we want him to stay here so have talked to his agent.
“You always want to get your best players tied up because he’s a real asset for the future.
“He’s done really well since coming back from injury and has shown he’s a leader.
“You can lead in different ways, whether it’s through your voice or your performances – he’s been doing both.
“I’m really happy with him, he’s making progress and is still young so there’s a lot more improvement in him.”
High hopes for other partnerships
The Sprangler-Phillips combination isn’t the only one MacLean has high hopes for in his new-look team.
“Last weekend was the first time we’d played a back three with this group,” he said. “The second time Dan and Sven played together in the middle, and the first time Dara Costelloe and Luke Jephcott played up front together.
“You could see the combinations starting to form and they’ll only get better.
“I’ve always said it’s a work in progress.
“Obviously you want to be doing these things in pre-season and getting these partnerships up and running much earlier.
“But the way things panned out, we’re having to do it in really competitive games.
“Aberdeen have been a good example of how things take time to gel.
“Barry (Robson) talked about it a lot at the start of the season. They’d brought in a lot of new players and had a lot of guys coming in at different stages of getting up to speed.
“They got a good performance in Germany against Eintracht Frankfurt and then won the back-to-back games against Ross County before getting a great result at Ibrox.
“So their team has clicked now. It has come together for them through playing games and working on it.
“All it takes is a big performance or a big result for things to start happening and you can start motoring.
“We are in a similar situation squad-wise with a new group and it does take time.
“But we know we have to start winning games sooner rather than later.”
MacLean pointed out that it isn’t certain he’ll stick with the formation he deployed against Livingston when they face Aberdeen.
“We went to the three because I thought that’s how Livingston would play,” he said.
“It was good to see that we can do it and it gives that other option.
“So we’ll look at every game, work out what’s best for us and what gives us the best chance of winning.”
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