Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak were not panic buys by Liverpool says Jason McAteer, who says Jurgen Klopp recruited shrewdly with “top-level” centre-half options such as Dayot Upamecano and Kalidou Koulibaly “out of range”.
The Reds were in desperate need of defensive additions as another winter deadline approached, with untimely injuries to Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and Fabinho leaving them short on options.
Klopp dipped into the Championship ranks to prise Davies away from Preston, before turning to his native Germany for Turkey international Kabak – who has been taken on an initial loan from Schalke.