Dubious reports over the last few days suggest that Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is interested in signing Bolton midfielder Mark Davies. Given it's the transfer silly season where 95% of transfer stories are made up by the tabloids, such a move seems unlikely at first glance, and after the tens of millions wasted on British dross over the last 18 months, it's definitely not a signing that would excite Liverpool fans. However, keeping an open mind, is Davies the type of player who could add depth to the club's squad for a comparatively small fee?
From the video below, Davies looks like he has great touch, a good turn of pace, and the ability to keep hold of the ball, all of which are qualities that Brendan Rodgers seems to value:
I remember Davies from Liverpool's depressing 3-1 defeat at Bolton last season; he scored the Trotters' first goal, and had a good game overall.
For £6m or less, Davies may be a good squad-filler, but a first-teamer? I can't see it, especially with his extremely low creative return of 5 goals/3 assists in 76 appearances (43 starts) for Bolton.
Liverpool have enough non-goalscoring midfielders right now.
Jaimie Kanwar
From the video below, Davies looks like he has great touch, a good turn of pace, and the ability to keep hold of the ball, all of which are qualities that Brendan Rodgers seems to value:
I remember Davies from Liverpool's depressing 3-1 defeat at Bolton last season; he scored the Trotters' first goal, and had a good game overall.
For £6m or less, Davies may be a good squad-filler, but a first-teamer? I can't see it, especially with his extremely low creative return of 5 goals/3 assists in 76 appearances (43 starts) for Bolton.
Liverpool have enough non-goalscoring midfielders right now.
Jaimie Kanwar
Very reasoned and diplomatic summary. I reckon you're right - he'd be a decent acquisition at that price, but purely as a bench-player. And even then, we have an abundance of similar players so I won't cry if we don't get him.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think the 6 million should go towards a striker.
Talented player in a poor side, BR clearly rates him and tried to get him at Swansea. It's about signing the right players regardless of who they play for, at the right price. BR turned a group of ordinary players???, Into the best passing team in the Prem.
ReplyDeleteThat is why he is the Liverpool boss now, he see's players with talent and buys them cheap. This is a good model to work from, he will sign big name players but only outstanding players. He loves finding top talent for peanuts, Joe Allen, Dyer, Vorm, Sinclair etc are now worth big money!!
BR know's what he wants and we should back him all the way, Swansea did and the rest is history!!!
i am a bolton fan and i will tell you he was one of are only bright spots last season the lad is a rare breed a central midfielder who likes to dribble with the ball in a better team he will improve a lot
ReplyDeleteWhy do spend most of the opening paragraph running Davies down by association (millions wasted..british dross...won`t excite etc) then say `however keeping an open mind` when your mind is as closed as a submarine door). And by the way great touch, good pace and the ability to keep the ball are attributes not only valued by Rodgers, Sherlock! If you are going to post something please make it balanced and informative/interesting. If he has all those qualities and can show them weekly he will be a great asset to any club.
ReplyDeleteHe is a very clever player who would flourish at Liverpool, people just slag off anyone who isn't from South America or Spain. The lad has a lot of quality and keeps the ball very well, that is what BR likes about him!!!
ReplyDeleteWasn't Charlie Adam a talented player in a poor team also, before he came to Liverpool and look how he performed. Henderson, Downing and Carroll were also from poor sides though Newcastle havent looked back since Carroll left.
ReplyDeleteHaven't Liverpool got enough ordinary mid fielders they need to get world class players if they are to move forward.
ReplyDeleteThe likes of Henderson and co can warm the bench while Adam goes elsewhere he is useless, i hope and pray this is just another bad rumour.
where have i heard that kind of thing before????? oh yes, the wizard of the ball, charlie adam!!! what a great buy he was. like the 'magical left foot', i would imagine, davies would fit perfectly, like a hand in shoe.
ReplyDeleteyes, i know i am going to contradict myself here, as i don't tend to take much notice of stories like these until they actually happen.......but......no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no!!!! if this really is the level rodgers is looking at, then why did we get rid of kk?? i would be very worried if there was any truth in this, very, very, very worried, so i hope it is total rubbish. we have bought 'cheap' players (500k rangers reject adam) and apart from being british (we know where that policy has driven us to) he is a beyond less than average player. please brendan, don't blot your copy book before you even get going.
ReplyDeleteno,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no!!!!! if this is the route brendan is going, why get rid of kd???? a british, less than average player. hopefully it is just paper bulls*it, however if this really is the level he is aiming for, then it is going to be a very,very long,hard road for you. two words should be enough to put you off even glancing in that direction, just because he is cheap........charlie adam. aka the 500k rangers reject,who blackpool were even dubious about.
ReplyDeleteThis guy is not good enough for Liverpool, I'd be very surprised if the stories of us going for him was true. We have so many central midfielders it's just not a position I see us spending what money we have on strengthening. A striker and a right winger are surely the priorities.
ReplyDeleteThe owners want to buy on the cheap,and 'young' as we all know!.They made mistakes last year - they more than likely won't in the future,hopefully!
ReplyDeleteThey wanted Torres out for the money,and brought in Carroll in the last minutes of the transfer window but it backfired because there was'n't enough time to do a cheaper deal! Torres only handed in his transfer request in those last few minutes because there were no moves to bring in new players before he did!
The owners wanted the 50mil,but it backfired when they were forced to pay 35mil for Carroll!
We are in where we are right now is great attributed to our previous manager, KD. If he's still around, the price of this Davis player will cost at least 3x the price now. We are really in for a long hard journey with BR leading the way. This rebuilding phase will take a very long time under circumstances that other top teams stop improving their squad. We are too far away from the top 4 or 5 teams in EPL.
ReplyDeleteSomething I don't quite understand, since we are only capable of getting relatively unknown and unproven players, why can we get those young players that cost 1-2 mil pounds? Who knows, maybe we can get a young Kagawa?
It' sad!
ReplyDeleteAs a Bolton fan, don't believe all that Cfstu says. Davies has no end product and cannot pass accurately over 5 yards. We'd happily take your £5 or £6M. We'd even let him go for £4M and Charlie Adam.
ReplyDeleteWhoever or whatever Players we sign will be up to BR... Why can't fans chillout go on holiday, drink a few beers and get ready for the pre season friendlies. It is now become so boring listening to the fans go on about who or who we shouldn't sign the only ones to Benefit from all these rumours are the media and the players agent.
ReplyDeleteThis is ridiculous, FFS buy a real midfielder from outside of the UK.
ReplyDeleteim a bolton fan and the lad is a talent and young but very inconsistant a good game then you will not see him for the next few though i think he was carrying a injury for the most of last season would be surprised if there is something in the story to be honest
ReplyDeleteHey guys... don't under-rate Charlie Adam! Charlie played magnificently well before Lucas got injured.. He is good if played in the right position.
ReplyDeleteIt doesnt matter who we signing....as long as BR know what he want....n most important is HOW TO USE THEM WELL !!!!
ReplyDeleteps: be reasonable...our situation now is player choose liv not liv choose player....n fans stop dreaming your fantasy game buy this buy tat.....if u think use money to buy glory back then go support chelski or mancity....
ynwa
People were saying exactly the same thing last summer when we were linked with Downing, that "people don't want him because he's not from Spain" etc. Well I think they know now why we didn't want him.
ReplyDeleteto be correct is RIGHT TACTIC....
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, if we buy him as a squad player and then end up selling him in a couple of seasons time, will we get more than £6m for him? I can't see into the future (unfortunately!!) but I doubt it. Where's the business sense in that? If we get him for £2m then maybe it's worth it.
ReplyDeleteGiven his creative return stats in the article, I think he's too old to suddenly start to develop into a great player that we'd all be saying 3 years from now "wow, wasn't he a steal at £6m"
i like the article , usually fans of opposition teams dont really assess it very well but i think you have it quite right. As a wanderers fan i think i can speak for all of us in saying mark davies is probably the most talented player we have had for a while and could go the full distance if he started to really grab the game by the scruff of the neck. Last season was the first time we had seen him play in so many games consistently as usually either injury or the odd red card stopped that ! but there is obviously quality and potential there its just time is ticking to keep going on about potential and if he doesn't ( as your article states) bring more to the table i.e goals and assists hes a nice but pointless player to have. He has got it all there just doesn't seem to know how to let it all out.
ReplyDeleteno he didn't, he had couple ok games, but never really dictated the tempo of the games, He exposed the back line, forced Lucas to do twice the donkey work he did b4, The injury to Lucas exposed the real charlie, who has been horrible and should have never been bought
ReplyDeleteLooked really promising a few years ago. Seems to be rather inconsistent. Needs to step it up and polish off his game. If he was cheaper, I'd say go for it, as he is technically pretty good
ReplyDeleteSpot on Mate.
ReplyDeletea good squad filler indeed.
ReplyDeletebut in the middle we currently have Gerrard, Lucas, Hendo, Shelvey, Adam, Spearing, Cole(if he is allowed to play in the middle), Aquaman and if we really wanted to test the waters Coady and Suso have been getting alot of praise.
so exactly how will he squeeze in? wouldnt that 5-6m be better placed in someone in a badly needed position.
The backheeler in the box was Elmander No.9 he wasn't with Bolton in 2012!
ReplyDeleteAs for Davies not being good enough he had one over on yous when we beat you in January!
So did David N'gog and we don't want him back.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen enough of Davies to make a proper judgement, but he always impresses in highlights and obviously when we played Bolton last season. That said we effectively surrendered the midfield in that game and it was before we had started to cope (relatively) with the loss of Lucas.
ReplyDeleteI like the look of him though. He looks a Rodgers player. I'm still convinced there are probably better prospects out there for the same kind of money.
As one of the Bolton fans pointed out (whose contribution is very much appreciated) he doesn't seem to take games by the scruff of the neck. We've already got Henderson as a talented midfielder who falls short mentally, so we don't need another.
I'm sorry but a bench player!!, I don't think so!. He would breeze into that Liverpool midfield!, Liverpool ain't got the best of midfields and he's alot better than adams!!
ReplyDeletei can understand how liverpool fans will suspect he is an average player, but coming from a knowledgable bolton fan, he is fucking quality and it is only a matter of time until a big side snaps him up. he will go on to play for england, i can guarantee, his dribbling is out of this world.
ReplyDeleteYou would be lucky too have him, not good enough for Liverpool? That's a new one
ReplyDeleteWhere is welbeck came from? Where is ox-chamberlain, Wilshere and all this young talent came from? we need to give good player from the average a chance to prove themselves in the big team, that why England has not big talent to win the world cup, the reason why no English players playing right now in some big team abroad, England club need to give britis managers and players chances to develop the national team and clubs, Spain, Italy and other countries are better than us because the trust their young talent and we buy from them, England will never have a team if all the young talent does in average teams
ReplyDeleteI wanted to say the British young talented players and managers need chances, all the talent we buying from abroad they were given chances, they don't die in average clubs
ReplyDeletei think i can play better than him and ave managed 3 high school soccer goals in my entire life
ReplyDeleteHis goal against Liverpool seems to be one of the worst defence work we have done last season. It was so poor that 3 defenders were making space for him to dribble the ball all the way to the mouth of goal post.
ReplyDeleteTotally different player and position so crappy point!
ReplyDeleteI suppose the person with the best answer would be BR himself. Would MD be the diamond in the rough?
ReplyDeleteFor me, if the team plays like a team, you wouldn't need to depend too much on the finesse of Suarez, or the drive of Gerrard. Look at the Spain team for example, its really hard to pick out a single Spanish player that was a stand-out performer by a mile. They were all very technical, and good on the ball. We need more players like this. I watched some non Liverpool games last season, and I remember this guy playing. He is one of those players that will want to get in positions to receive the ball and have a go. He is eager when he plays. A big big difference to the way Downing and Henderson play.But right now, I think this team needs a group of players with the same mentality. Only then can Rodgers do his stuff.
ReplyDelete