Jamie Carragher revealed that the feeling around Liverpool about Naby Keita is that he needs a good 12 months in order for it to be known what he can truly add to the midfield.
The former Reds defender suggested that the 24-year-old midfielder hadn’t taken off since arriving at the club and that Liverpool were still waiting to see what he could truly bring.
Carragher was discussing how the Reds midfield may be lacking a little something but stated the club will see if Keita can make a difference before jumping into the transfer market for a solution.
“I think the one before Liverpool look to the transfer market is Naby Keita, Liverpool are still waiting for him to take off really,” said Carragher on talkSPORT (18:10, Wednesday, October 9th).
“He was a big transfer fee when he come in, didn’t quite hit the ground running, had some good games, some injuries and I think the feeling is around the club is that they have to give him a good 12 months to really see what Keita can do to this midfield.
“If he brings what he was supposed to bring or does what he showed in Germany, that would add something to the midfield that the Reds are lacking slightly.
“However it’s hard to talk about stuff lacking at the moment for Liverpool.”
OPINION
Keita is likely as frustrated over how his time at Anfield has gone as much as Liverpool are, as there’s no denying the Reds haven’t seen the best of him. The 24-year-old arrived at Liverpool from RB Leipzig in July 2018 after the Reds paid a mouthwatering £48million for him, as per the BBC, but he has only featured 36 times for the club across all competitions. Keita has had numerous injury problems, four separate issues are listed on his injury history on Transfermarkt, and that has not helped him settle in or even get to grips with the Premier League. After all, every new player when joining the club from another league is going to need to play plenty of minutes in order to understand what is required of him. However, Keita simply hasn’t had enough consistent playing time to do that. This season the 24-year-old hasn’t featured in the Premier League and instead had the briefest of cameos in the Champions League against RB Salzburg, while also playing 63 minutes against MK Dons in the EFL Cup (Source: Transfermarkt). So it seems only fair that Liverpool remain patient with him, also given the Reds are coping fine without him in the league, they’re eight points clear at the top of the table, they can afford to give him time.
