Ben Davies reacts to ‘surprise’ Liverpool transfer: ‘It’s an incredible opportunity’

Ben Davies is relishing an “incredible opportunity" at Liverpool after sealing his deadline day transfer to Merseyside.

The versatile defender will now be mixing it with Premier League champions after having never previously played in the top-flight and spent the entirety of his career to date at Championship club Preston, where he was highly-regarded and made 144 senior appearances.

Liverpool’s shock swoop for Davies came about with Joel Matip and Fabinho both injured and Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez still long-term absentees, leading to a defensive injury headache for manager Jurgen Klopp and a 12th different centre-back partnership in the last 21 Premier League games at West Ham on Sunday.

The 25-year-old had initially looked set to join Celtic on a pre-contract agreement in the summer, when his Preston deal was due to expire.

However, Davies will now turn out for Liverpool, where he is expected to be joined before the transfer window shuts at 11pm GMT on Monday night by Schalke defender Ozan Kabak.

“It’s a huge opportunity," Davies told Liverpool’s official website.

"Obviously it came as a bit of a surprise when it first came but once you start to get your head around it, the opportunity that is in front of me is incredible. I’d be silly to not make the most of it and learn off the players [at the club].

“I’ve never actually been to Anfield and I haven’t had a look around yet. I had a quick look out and had a look at the pitch and it looks like carpet, which obviously you’d expect.

“I haven’t actually walked out of the tunnel yet, so I’m looking forward to that. Just to be in this kind of atmosphere is brilliant.”

Explaining the reasoning behind an unusual transfer, Klopp said: "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. 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.”

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