OPINION
Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita will be the first to admit that his debut season in English football hasn’t gone as well as he would have hoped.
However, he still has a chance to save his beleaguered Reds career. He scored his first goal for the club against Southampton last Friday, and now Liverpool legend John Aldridge has called on him to take the next step.
“Naby Keita’s goal was a big moment for Liverpool and for the player,” he wrote in his Liverpool Echo column. “His first for the club, you could see it instantly took a huge weight off his shoulders. Now he just has to take the bull by the horns and show us what we all know he can do.
“Keita knows things haven’t been going for him since arriving at the club, and that goal could signal a change in fortune for him,” he finished.
Aldridge is spot on, it’s time that Keita kicks on and reminds us all why Jurgen Klopp was so keen to bring him to Anfield in the first place. He was a phenomenal player for RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga, but he just hasn’t produced that same level of quality in the Premier League.
There are a million reasons why that’s the case, but excuses do no one any good. If the Reds are to meet their goals down the stretch this season then their big money summer signing will need to step up to the plate.
On paper he is one of the team’s most creative players, but he hasn’t shown that when he’s been on the pitch so far. However, it was in evidence at St Mary’s Stadium on Friday. He was determined to get forward and make an impact, and he did just that.
Aldridge knows what it takes to be a success at Anfield, so it’s worth listening to him. He believes that Keita’s goal on Friday could be the turning point in the Guinean’s Reds career. Only time will tell whether that proves to be correct, but the player will certainly hope so.
But, as Aldridge says, it’s about pushing on for him now and delivering on the potential we all see in the 24-year-old. There’s still time for him to be a big Red favourite, he just has to deliver the goods.
