The truth about Naby Keita, his divisive Liverpool performances, and what Jürgen Klopp wants
The Guinean midfielder divides opinion like no other current Liverpool player.
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Naby Keita's displays always bring very different points of view from supporters.(Image: Photo by Visionhaus)
There are no rules to say Liverpool need at least one divisive midfielder in their starting XI, it’s just by chance that this seems to be the case. At first, it was Lucas Leiva, then Emre Can; Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum and Fabinho have all had their turn too.
Now it is Naby Keita.
With Henderson ruled out against West Ham on Monday night, Jürgen Klopp made the decision to start the former RB Leipzig man alongside Wijnaldum and Fabinho. It was a big call. The Liverpool No.8 had only made one other start since the turn of the year, and the hope was he’d grasp this opportunity with both hands after an injury-hit campaign and offer the spark in the middle third.
After 57 minutes, with the Reds 2-1 down, Keita was replaced by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The latter added drive and purpose in the middle third and though he wasn’t directly responsible for the equaliser or the winner, his introduction significantly increased the tempo.
Following the win, talk inevitably turned to the dynamic Guinean, the wasted chance at the heart of the midfield and how he flattered to deceive yet again.
But the numbers on the night told a different story.
For starters, only Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson (both with six) played more key passes than Keita (two). He attempted 39 passes, of which only a quarter of them arrived in his own half, and completed 90 per cent of them. The 25-year-old completed one of his three dribbles, and won five of the seven tackles he attempted.
For context, no Liverpool player managed to win the ball more often than Keita did and only Jeremy Ngakia, the West Ham right-back, won more tackles than the former Red Bull Salzburg maestro.
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As far as box-to-box midfield performances go, Keita ticked all of the boxes. He thwarted the opposition on multiple occasions, he was frugal yet brave when in possession, and he was a creative outlet, setting up two shots. While it may not have been a performance to add to a highlight reel, it was a quintessential Keita outing. The sort Jamie Carragher mentioned prior to kick-off on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football.
The Anfield legend shared his thoughts on the midfielders.“This is the man who I’m still waiting to really explode and show Liverpool supporters what he is about," he said. "He’s a funny player you can watch a game and the perfect example was away against Norwich and I didn’t think he played particularly well, he didn’t have a terrible game, he was just ok.
“Then you get all the stats come through about how many times he regained the ball, how many passes he made to people in the box, all these different stats that when you look at you think you’ve got a top player there. He’s always top of those stats but when I watch a game, I don’t feel like I see that with my eyes.”
And this is the Keita conundrum. He’s very much an output merchant and it’s easy to see why Ian Graham, the head of research for the club, was so eager to add him to the Liverpool squad.
In a New York Times feature , the thought process behind signing the fleet-footed midfielder was revealed. What scouts saw when they watched Keita was a versatile midfielder. What Graham saw on his laptop was a phenomenon. Here was someone continually working to move the ball into more advantageous positions, something even an attentive spectator probably wouldn’t notice unless told to look for it.
While the Reds have much more detailed data at their disposal, the fact Keita often looks so languid on first viewing yet regularly manages to post impressive numbers backs up what the Liverpool recruitment team originally saw in him. Aesthetically, he isn’t anything special. Statistically, however, he is remarkable.
Statsbomb posted a tweet in January showing his performance radar and it painted Keita as one of the most well-rounded midfielders in the world, albeit with a small sample size. Similarly, Dan Kennett of Anfield Indexcompared Keita’s underlying numbers over the past two seasons to Kevin De Bruyne’s. Despite the narratives, their per 90 averages are near enough identical.
The Guinean midfielder divides opinion like no other current Liverpool player.
SHARE
- BY SAM MCGUIRE
- 04:00, 27 FEB 2020UPDATED21:15, 26 FEB 2020
Naby Keita's displays always bring very different points of view from supporters.(Image: Photo by Visionhaus)
There are no rules to say Liverpool need at least one divisive midfielder in their starting XI, it’s just by chance that this seems to be the case. At first, it was Lucas Leiva, then Emre Can; Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum and Fabinho have all had their turn too.
Now it is Naby Keita.
With Henderson ruled out against West Ham on Monday night, Jürgen Klopp made the decision to start the former RB Leipzig man alongside Wijnaldum and Fabinho. It was a big call. The Liverpool No.8 had only made one other start since the turn of the year, and the hope was he’d grasp this opportunity with both hands after an injury-hit campaign and offer the spark in the middle third.
After 57 minutes, with the Reds 2-1 down, Keita was replaced by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The latter added drive and purpose in the middle third and though he wasn’t directly responsible for the equaliser or the winner, his introduction significantly increased the tempo.
Following the win, talk inevitably turned to the dynamic Guinean, the wasted chance at the heart of the midfield and how he flattered to deceive yet again.
But the numbers on the night told a different story.
For starters, only Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson (both with six) played more key passes than Keita (two). He attempted 39 passes, of which only a quarter of them arrived in his own half, and completed 90 per cent of them. The 25-year-old completed one of his three dribbles, and won five of the seven tackles he attempted.
For context, no Liverpool player managed to win the ball more often than Keita did and only Jeremy Ngakia, the West Ham right-back, won more tackles than the former Red Bull Salzburg maestro.
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As far as box-to-box midfield performances go, Keita ticked all of the boxes. He thwarted the opposition on multiple occasions, he was frugal yet brave when in possession, and he was a creative outlet, setting up two shots. While it may not have been a performance to add to a highlight reel, it was a quintessential Keita outing. The sort Jamie Carragher mentioned prior to kick-off on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football.
The Anfield legend shared his thoughts on the midfielders.“This is the man who I’m still waiting to really explode and show Liverpool supporters what he is about," he said. "He’s a funny player you can watch a game and the perfect example was away against Norwich and I didn’t think he played particularly well, he didn’t have a terrible game, he was just ok.
“Then you get all the stats come through about how many times he regained the ball, how many passes he made to people in the box, all these different stats that when you look at you think you’ve got a top player there. He’s always top of those stats but when I watch a game, I don’t feel like I see that with my eyes.”
And this is the Keita conundrum. He’s very much an output merchant and it’s easy to see why Ian Graham, the head of research for the club, was so eager to add him to the Liverpool squad.
In a New York Times feature , the thought process behind signing the fleet-footed midfielder was revealed. What scouts saw when they watched Keita was a versatile midfielder. What Graham saw on his laptop was a phenomenon. Here was someone continually working to move the ball into more advantageous positions, something even an attentive spectator probably wouldn’t notice unless told to look for it.
While the Reds have much more detailed data at their disposal, the fact Keita often looks so languid on first viewing yet regularly manages to post impressive numbers backs up what the Liverpool recruitment team originally saw in him. Aesthetically, he isn’t anything special. Statistically, however, he is remarkable.
Statsbomb posted a tweet in January showing his performance radar and it painted Keita as one of the most well-rounded midfielders in the world, albeit with a small sample size. Similarly, Dan Kennett of Anfield Indexcompared Keita’s underlying numbers over the past two seasons to Kevin De Bruyne’s. Despite the narratives, their per 90 averages are near enough identical.
