Naby KEITA: 2021/22

Guinea is playing right now Keïta is on the bench. :+1:

2 Likes

Keïta came on after '70 and 2 minutes later Sedan scored the equalizer. :sunglasses:

Was he still on when they scored the equaliser or had he gone off injured by then?

2 Likes

not a great coupe to have him in the squad then.

Yeah; he’s no Bentley Continental GT.

1 Like

Bloody kids from transfermarkt…

They put Imran Louza (who is Moroccan) in Guinea’s starting XI instead of Keita (who played the full game) against Morocco.

Don’t think that Naby has bad game or is our worst player so far.

Doesn’t matter anyway because usually he gets injured 1-2 weeks after a start.

Had to write this to break the circle :see_no_evil:

1 Like

He’s a proper Klopp midfielder. Some of the pressing today was just brilliant. Think it contributed to 2-3 goals. Just amazing he played 90 given he played 3 international games. Cautiously optimistic, more of the same please!

6 Likes

For the Watford game, I was more impressed with the dirty work he was doing which is what is needed from him to excel in a Klopp team. We know he can do the skills, but the workrate, desire to get back and be physical was the signal for me that he has, finally (hopefully), has had some sense drilled into him.

3 Likes

We need to actually give his national team credit for not overplaying him. We shouldn’t have to, it’s the logical thing to do, but historically they have been some brutally bad decisions to play him.

1 Like

New regime…too soon?

1 Like

Ah, forgot about that, good one.

I love it when he’s fit and on form. Looked really good today, let’s hope we see more of that in the next couple of games.

5 Likes
1 Like

I was really surprised to find that Keita didn’t play against Morocco. That was a key game.

In the last 15 matches that Naby Keita has been involved in for Liverpool, they have scored 46 goals (3.06 per game) and conceded 6 (0.4 per game)

Injury free Keita will become a mainstay in our midfield.

2 Likes

Naby does tend to start easier games so those figures are skewed a bit, but they obviously show he’s not a passenger as certain posters on this forum like to claim every single time he plays.

He had a really good game yesterday, he kept control over the midfield on and off the ball. It’d be great if he could put another 2 or 3 performances together like that whilst we get Thiago and Jones fit again.

4 Likes
3 Likes

He did, tip of the diamond. Played the full game.

What Keita has is the ability to reappear (and disappear, unfortunately!) in the side and actually play like he’s always been there and was good. In both directions. He doesn’t need ‘games’ to become good, but his ceiling also so far wasn’t high or long enough. Minus the Midtjylland and Real games when he just didn’t look ready. So, the performances story is over for a while now, in most games. It’s more about fitness in last seasons and staying fit for longer periods.

Yeah, we can say for a while now almost certainly that he will never be the player we all thought/hoped he would be when he signed. I was very excited with this signing, but I don’t expect that ceiling anymore, bar any major surprises. But that doesn’t block him of being a pretty good player for us.

What time has showed I think is that possibly this side and this league is a little bit too physical for him. And maybe, character wise, he didn’t come out of his shell enough. Maybe also took it more relaxed with his biggest contract so far? Made steps with his English, although who knows about his communication behind the scenes apart from this “Naby lad” thing going on. Sometimes it doesn’t go as expected with players/people from poor backgrounds. Be it from Brazil, Africa or wherever. Who knows. I don’t think he’s any troublemaker type, but maybe there’s also a lack of urgency from his part.

You can sense in almost all videos that the players still like him, they rate him as a serious player (we didn’t have a lot of midfielders of that type in modern times) when there are no niggles, but it’s like they’re also taking it easy with him. Knowing that it didn’t work out so well so far and he might be a bit fragile.

I think we are way past this “nah, this isn’t great” feeling. That doesn’t mean he didn’t play a lot of good games for us. Not great, not bad, but good games. The rest, we’ll see. I think most of people at the club are at peace with this situation. If somehow he stays fitter, we have a fine midfielder. If not, a decision will be taken soon, regarding also his contract situation. The decision itself might be a bit more complex than that though, it might also depend on other things.

3 Likes