It’s often said that you don’t want to introduce too many signings to the first team in a short space of time, and defensive understanding can take a lot of work to build.
Liverpool made late moves to sign Ozan Kabak and Ben Davies in the January transfer window to alleviate their defensive concerns, but the former Preston man hasn’t been able to play yet.
A large part of that has been down to an injury, but it appears that he’s able to play now so it’s Jurgen Klopp’s decision to keep him out of the team.
It would be a huge gamble to throw he and Kabak straight into the side together, and it was interesting to hear his explanation in his press conference today:
Jurgen Klopp explained why it's easier to throw an attacking signing straight into the team while a defender needs much more "work" pic.twitter.com/k0nVstWVAI
— CaughtOffside (@caughtoffside) March 13, 2021
It’s something that makes total sense, especially if you think about what could go wrong for players who play in those positions on the pitch.
If an attacker messes up then it’s likely that the ball is going to be lost high up the pitch, so you can get back into your shape and look to start another attack.
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If a defender makes an error then it could result in the only goal of the match and suddenly he’s cost you the game, so it’s a position where the manager needs to feel completely comfortable that they are ready to play.
It does suggest that Davies will need to be patient when it comes to getting a chance in the first team, but this explanation shows it was always going to be the case for at least one of the new signings.