Ben Davies Rangers hunger fuelled by Liverpool shutout as Anfield 'eye opener' had him ready for Ibrox

Walking alone wasn’t a worry for Ben Davies at Liverpool, not when he spent his six months at Anfield sitting among thousands of Scousers.

The Rangers defender thought he’d hit the jackpot when Jurgen Klopp handed him a dream move to Merseyside in January 2021. Brought in with the intention of plugging gaps in a backline decimated by injury, as it turned out the only thing the former Preston stopper ended up filling was a seat in the stand.

A debut for the then reigning Premier League winners never materialised, with eight unused substitute appearances the closest he ever got to pulling on a red jersey. By that summer, he’d been sent back to the Championship on loan at Sheffield United before eventually breaking his ties with Kop as he joined Gers at the start of the current campaign.

But far from viewing his brief Liverpool stint a waste of time, Davies made sure to soak up all he could from his position on the Anfield fringes. And it’s that glimpse behind the scenes at how things work at one of Europe’s elite clubs that the 27-year-old believes has allowed him to settle so successfully into Glasgow’s own pressure pot.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity and the experience,” insisted the centre-back. “It opened my eyes to the top level and what the best players do, day in, day out.

“It gave me life experience and now coming into Rangers off the back of it it’s definitely helped because I think if I’d come here without that step to Liverpool, it would’ve been a big eyeopener. I took from it how the elite people and teams in the world operate, how they prepare and the standards that are required around the whole club.

“That rubs off on you, even when you’re not playing. You benefit from that. I was up against these guys day