Jurgen Klopp has explained why Ben Davies is yet to make his Liverpool bow.
Davies arrived from Preston North End on the final day of the January transfer window but has been an unused substitute on four occasions this season.
The 25-year-old’s first-team prospects suffered another potential setback with the formidable displays of Nat Phillips and Ozan Kabak against RB Leipzig.
But Klopp insists that Davies is being phased towards a long-awaited debut for the Reds despite refusing to place a time scale on when it will happen.
He said: “Ben Davies has to adapt, it was always clear.
“A lot of players came here to Liverpool and the most famous story is maybe Andy Robertson.
“It took him half a year in a normal season, where pretty much everything else was kind of settled, to settle in.
“Ben is a really good player but he has to get used to all the stuff here as well and these kind of things. That’s how it is.
“What we have now still [are] options and hopefully it will stay like this.”
“I don’t tell Ben now you have just to train until the middle of May and then we see further. No, no, no. It will take as long as it takes,” added Klopp.
“But the problem was that it was clear that we will not start with two new centre-halves if we don’t have to, because of the situation and the position.
“It’s really important that the boys in the last line, especially, are used to each other, and the more games you can play together, the better it is.
“So that’s why we always figured it a little bit here and there and tried to make it as consistent as possible. But a lot of things disturbed that process but now it’s OK.
“Ben will play when he will play, so that’s how it is.”