Liverpool have completed the £2m signing of Preston North End centre-back Ben Davies.
The 25-year-old will arrive to bolster our fragile backline and will hope to earn regular Premier League minutes, having never previously played above the Championship.
Jurgen Klopp has explained in detail how we scouted Davies and decided to go for him this transfer deadline day.
“What I like about Ben is it just shows that each situation creates opportunities. I think it’s probably clear that in a normal transfer window, without any issues, we would not look at Preston if there’s a player for us or something like that,” he told the official website.
“It’s not really likely. But since we saw him and since our situation got clearer and clearer – the problems we had – when we saw him we got really excited about it and thought, ‘Wow.’ He’s a boy who played his whole life for Preston, is around the corner pretty much. We see the potential really. We see the quality and we see the potential as well because he’s 25 and there’s a lot to come for him. I love a lot about his play. He’s a really good footballer, looks like a proper leader in this Preston team, good in challenges, looks football smart, can play different positions because he played in a back three and a back four and all these things. That makes him really interesting so I’m really looking forward to working with him. I know for him it’s an opportunity and I see it exactly the same for us, that it’s a really good thing to do.”
On top of Davies, Liverpool have acquired Ozan Kabak from Schalke on an initial loan which could be turned permanent if he does the business.
The combination of Davies and Kabak, as well as the ability of Fabinho and Jordan Henderson at centre-back, will allow one of those two midfielders to return to the anchoring role.
We have a huge number of games coming up – and nearly all of them are must-win if we have serious ambitions to win the PL and the Champions League – so the pressure is on both the new arrivals.
Let’s hope they’re up to the challenge!