Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HOLLYWOOD MOVES NEED HAPPY ENDINGS
Klopp tells Kabak and Davies the hard work starts now after their dream transfers
JURGEN KLOPP has told his new signings they have earned a Hollywood move to Anfield - but now the hard work really starts.
The Liverpool boss dished out a dollop of cold reality when he insisted that both Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak will have to prove themselves capable of performing at the highest level before they are handed a start.
Yet Klopp is happy to challenge former Championship defender Davies and 20-yearold rookie Kabak to snatch their opportunity with both hands and write a fairytale ending to their “nice stories.”
“You don’t need to watch a Hollywood movie to see these kind of stories in football,” said Klopp. “Yesterday Preston, today Liverpool – that’s a nice story already.
“Ozan is pretty young but that makes it really special because he has this experience. Ben is the same, slightly older, different pathway, but I like that.
“I am a big fan of giving opportunities and this is an absolute chance for the club, the team and the boys as well. Whatever they have done so far has been good enough for us to want them. From now we expect more, easy as that. Each player has to make the team better – and that’s what we expect from the two boys.”
Ozan’s clearance from the Bundesliga didn’t come through in time for the young Turkish international, on loan from Schalke, to be available for tonight’s game at home to Brighton, but Davies may find a place on the bench, with Jordan Henderson and Nat Phillips set to continue at centre-back.
Fabinho will be back from injury for Sunday’s huge clash with Manchester City, and Klopp will go with experience in partnering him with Henderson, fitness allowing.
And that will show Kabak, who started his career at Galatasaray, and 25-year-old Davies, who cost £500,000 with a further £1.1m in add-ons structured into the deal, the size of the task they face in forcing a way into the starting XI.
Klopp, though, has told them they have a real chance, especially as he quashed rumours that Virgil van
Dijk will return from long-term injury earlier than expected.
“I don’t know where these things are coming from,” he said. “No doctor told me that there is a chance for Virgil to play again this season. I don’t want to say that is absolutely impossible but it is not likely.” Klopp also revealed that Van Dijk’s absence was a reason for allowing Taki Minamino (left) to go on loan to Southampton, as bizarre as that sounds.
He said: “Takumi is an incredibly good player and we didn’t give him enough chances, that is the truth. For different reasons. Sometimes it was just due to size. Because of our problems in defence we were not tall enough and, with Takumi on the pitch...how can we do that?
“Defending set-pieces is a very important part of the game. These kind of things make the difference for why one player plays and the other does not. Now he can play at Southampton.”