Calvin Ramsay can be Liverpool's STARTING right-back in future | OneFootball

Ramsay is worth a gamble

A lot has been made of Calvin Ramsay over the last few days following the Reds' 3-0 dispatching to Crystal Palace on Wednesday, meaning we were knocked out of the Carabao Cup in the fourth round.

To say his performance was extraordinary is an overstep, but he showed more than anyone else that he is capable of performing to the levels that Slot expects from his players. He was a major highlight.

At one point, he played a long-ball out of the Alexander-Arnold playbook, and he was largely solid in defence, winning his duels and getting stuck in with recoveries and clearances. Outside of the efforts we've seen from Dominik Szoboszlai at right-back on occasion, Ramsay delivered the best performance I've seen all season from a Liverpool full-back, there's no doubt about it.

Of course, we've got to recognise that the performance came in a loss, and Liverpool's full-backs haven't had a great campaign so far, so there standards weren't necessarily as high as you'd expect, but the Scot deserves all the credit he's been receiving. It was really refreshing to watch.

Prior to this season, he'd only played a total of 1012 minutes across the last three campaigns, going back to the 2022. His injury problems got in the way of each of the loan moves Liverpool sent him on.

As such, it's been easy to forget that he's even a Liverpool player. Knowing what he's capable of had become an impossible task. With that in mind, his display against the Eagles was truly remarkable.

In nine games for the U21s, he's managed to play 704 minutes so far this season, which suggests that his injury worries are behind him, and if they are, then the world is truly at his feet right now.

He's in contract until 2027, so there's no reason why he shouldn't be given opportunities in the future.

Frimpong is currently injured, which means that Szoboszlai is Bradley's cover when the Northern Irishman needs to be substituted off. Instances like that don't need to happen with Ramsay available.

And we can even go one step further, with the Scot potentially getting a run in the team ahead of Bradley, in order to prove himself as a capable starter. Good performances need to be rewarded.

In the big games, such as Real Madrid on Tuesday and Manchester City on Sunday, it makes sense for Slot to rely on his most experienced players, but Ramsay should be far more involved for the foreseeable - it makes no sense to have an asset like him spending his time playing youth games.