Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita didn’t travel to Bramall Lane to face Sheffield United on Saturday because he was working on his fitness at Melwood, according to the Liverpool Echo.
The newspaper claims that the Guinean international, on a reported £120,000-per-week at the club [Source: Spotrac], is being looked after carefully by manager Jurgen Klopp.
Keita did play in Wednesday’s 2-0 Carabao Cup victory over MK Dons, and it seems that Klopp felt that two games in four days was too much for him.
Having said that, the Echo’s report does state that it was the 24-year-old himself who ultimately elected to remain on Merseyside.
OPINION
Well, this is interesting, isn’t it? It’s a pretty safe assumption that, after starting at Stadium MK, Keita wasn’t going to be playing from the beginning on Saturday. Therefore the player and Klopp obviously felt that him doing extra work at Melwood was more conducive in ensuring he stays fully fit than playing 20 minutes off the bench – or not even featuring – against the Blades. We know that Klopp has plenty of midfield options, with James Milner, Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all on the substitute’s bench behind the three central midfield starters. So Keita may not have been in the squad anyway, and there’s certainly a good chance that he wouldn’t have featured even if he did make the trip. That would then have been ultimately fruitless travel for a player who is still getting back to 100%. When you consider all of the above, it seems that Klopp and Keita made the right decision here.
