Ben Davies

He's played against Celtic and Hearts.

Who else are you going to judge him against?
European teams, i am not saying he is a bad player, but we knew what to expect with Goldson , Helander etc.
We get carried away when we win a few games with certain players , he does look settled.
It will be interesting when Soutar is back.
 
European teams, i am not saying he is a bad player, but we knew what to expect with Goldson , Helander etc.
We get carried away when we win a few games with certain players , he does look settled.
It will be interesting when Soutar is back.
Davies is miles ahead of a fit Souttar. Souttar looked badly out of place in our side pre season and against Livi. Granted he had some personal issues at the time, but Davies is levels about him.
 
What is the jury considering out of interest?
His durability for one. He’s on a decent run of 7-10 games just now, but we need someone with the body and mentality to carry that through a full season.

What was telling for me was pre World Cup against St Mirren - he wasn’t injured, he just needed ‘managed’ according to Gio, despite starting at St Johnstone the week before. This was a game we badly needed all hands on deck. We ended up with King being stretchered off and finished with a Sands/Lundstram partnership at the back.

With the upcoming month off, I’d expect someone with a Tav or Goldson mentality to make themselves available. Looking back on Davies’ record, he’s prone to the frequent spell on the sidelines, which tells me we’ll need to have 1 or 2 on standby regularly as he can’t be relied on.
 
Having a settled back 4 and a naturally left footed centre half makes a huge difference. His ability to win headers does worry me though. Against Kilmarnock a few weeks ago you could see them targeting it with long balls between him and Borna.
 
Davies has slotted in fine after a limited amount of games. He has rarely put a foot wrong and looks calm/composed on the ball. With more time he will develop a solid relationship with goldson.

Having a settled back 4 and a naturally left footed centre half makes a huge difference. His ability to win headers does worry me though. Against Kilmarnock a few weeks ago you could see them targeting it with long balls between him and Borna.
 
Davies is miles ahead of a fit Souttar. Souttar looked badly out of place in our side pre season and against Livi. Granted he had some personal issues at the time, but Davies is levels about him.
I think he will be far more less injured than Souttar , where do you see Souttar?
On the bench will do him no favours with fitness and sharpness.
He was bullied in the Livingston game which was surprising.
 
I think he will be far more less injured than Souttar , where do you see Souttar?
On the bench will do him no favours with fitness and sharpness.
He was bullied in the Livingston game which was surprising.
Long term, I can’t see Souttar making a starting place his own. Best case scenario, I see him as a 15 games a season guy, covering injuries and coming on to see games out. Think George Edmundson. It probably suits his body too, and means he might be ready when we need him, rather than the fanbase being disgruntled he’s not got the consistency levels of a Goldson.
 
Long term, I can’t see Souttar making a starting place his own. Best case scenario, I see him as a 15 games a season guy, covering injuries and coming on to see games out. Think George Edmundson. It probably suits his body too, and means he might be ready when we need him, rather than the fanbase being disgruntled he’s not got the consistency levels of a Goldson.
likely correct, bad to say a guy in his mid 20s cannot do more in a season .
Compare what Goldson does, and the guy had / has a heart issue.
 
His durability for one. He’s on a decent run of 7-10 games just now, but we need someone with the body and mentality to carry that through a full season.

What was telling for me was pre World Cup against St Mirren - he wasn’t injured, he just needed ‘managed’ according to Gio, despite starting at St Johnstone the week before. This was a game we badly needed all hands on deck. We ended up with King being stretchered off and finished with a Sands/Lundstram partnership at the back.

With the upcoming month off, I’d expect someone with a Tav or Goldson mentality to make themselves available. Looking back on Davies’ record, he’s prone to the frequent spell on the sidelines, which tells me we’ll need to have 1 or 2 on standby regularly as he can’t be relied on.
Really? Once established at Preston, he played 145 games in 4 seasons, and was considered one of their mainstays, hardly unreliable
 
Really? Once established at Preston, he played 145 games in 4 seasons, and was considered one of their mainstays, hardly unreliable
In the two seasons prior to this one, he started 21 and 19 league games. One of those were on loan in the championship for 46 games - which meant he started 45% of the games.

Those are Balogun/Helander numbers. Titles are won on settled back 4’s. I’ll resist the urge to decide that we have another Davis Weir or Richard Gough on our hands for a little bit longer.

Combine that with this season, where it took him 6 months to reach a level of fitness that he could complete 90 mins, then I think it’s reasonable to have doubts over whether he’ll be able to meet the demands of playing Wed-Sat for us over the course of a 60 game season enough to be considered as one of our main centre halfs.
 
Ability wise he's already looking very assured and strolling it but like a lot of our players it's whether he can stay fit, if he can he will form a solid partnership with Goldson.
 
That was a different time and a very different Liverpool team though. And to be fair, I actually quite liked the big fella.
It wasn’t long enough ago not to be an utterly weird bit of business. He was good for the second half of 04/05 then he started his nonsense around contracts and was pretty mince for the whole of the next season, barring a goal v Porto.
 
Back
Top