Liverpool have suffered greatly with injuries this season. The Reds have lost large swathes of the team to the treatment table; the loss of centre backs became so severe that the club recruited in January. Jose Enrique has questioned the signing of Ben Davies.
Liverpool sign Ben Davies
This season has been a cursed one for the Reds’ centre back roster.
We started the campaign with just three senior centre backs in the side and everyone of them has been ruled out until next season.
Virgil van Dijk was the first to go when he had his ACL ruptured by Jordan Pickford in the Merseyside Derby in October.
Joe Gomez wasn’t far behind, picking up a knee problem in November.
Joel Matip was in and out of the side until he too was ruled out in January.
The Reds had to act swiftly on deadline day, tieing up deals for Ben Davies from Preston North End and Ozan Kabak from Schalke.
Jose Enrique on Ben Davies
We are yet to see our signing from Preston.
Davies has failed to get any minutes with Nat Phillips and Ozan Kabak appearing ahead of him; the February arrival has also suffered with injury.
Ex-Red Jose Enrique isn’t convinced by the signing of Ben Davies, writing in his Empire of the Kop column:
“Perhaps Klopp has seen something in training and doesn’t think he’s up to it yet… When Phillips still plays ahead of him, you have to ask, ‘Why did we sign him?’
“I want to see Davies, but for me, a side like Liverpool shouldn’t be signing Championship players when you think about the level the team wants to be fighting at. Still, we need to see him, to see if he’s good or not…
“When we signed players like this when I was at the club, you understood – as we were always fighting for top four – but this Liverpool should be a team fighting for titles.
“I don’t know what is going on financially, but I really believe we should have spent money on a world-class centre-back in January.”
What RTK has to say
Jose Enrique isn’t the only one puzzled by the Ben Davies signing.
Personally I think he was a business move more than anything.
We got him for just £1.6m and we can make a sizeable profit on that sum, he only went so cheap because he was approaching the end of his contract.
It would come as no shock if he was sold on in the summer and the money was used to fund a more established top flight centre half.