Rangers Loan Star Hailed As ‘Excellent 1-v-1 Defender’ By Ex-Striker After Birmingham Performances | OneFootball

Former striker Sam Parkin has stressed that Rangers centre-back Ben Davies, who is on loan at Birmingham City, is a fantastic 1-v-1 defender, and also hailed him for his calmness on the ball.

Davies has ample experience of playing in the Championship in England and he was even on the books of Liverpool before Scottish giants Rangers snapped him up in 2022.

Even though the defender has 58 Rangers appearances under his belt, he found it particularly difficult to get into the team and this summer was loaned out to Birmingham City in the last summer transfer window.

Blues are hot favourites to achieve automatic promotion from League One at the end of this season and the 29-year-old Gers loanee has been an influential presence in the team.

Birmingham have also reached the final of the EFL Trophy and Parkin lauded Davies for his performance in the semi-final game against Bradford City earlier this month.

The former Scottish Premiership star praised the Rangers’ loanee’s ability to face an attacker and he is also impressed with the defender’s ability on the ball.

“I think both centre-halves are really, really good on the ball”, Parkin said on the What The EFL (34:11) about Blues defensive duo.

“[Christoph] Klarer and Davies; Davies in particular really impressed me in that Football League Trophy game the other day.

“He is an excellent 1-v-1 defender, but he is beautifully adept of stepping out with the ball from that backline”, he added while talking about the Rangers defender.

Barry Ferguson is the new Rangers boss and what the Gers legend thinks about Davies remains to be seen, while it is even unclear who will be the manager at Ibrox when the summer rolls around.

His contract at Ibrox is valid until the summer of 2026, but given his huge experience of Championship football, Birmingham could well want to try to sign him on a permanent basis if they go back up to the second tier.