Jurgen Klopp has admitted he wasn’t brave enough to select Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita in the 5-2 win against Everton on Wednesday.
The Reds started with a midfield three of Georginio Wijnaldum, James Milner, and Adam Lallana, as Keita finished the Merseyside derby as an unused substitute.
Klopp claimed that he wanted to use the African midfielder but had already made five changes – admitting that if he had made a sixth it would have been one too many.
“Now, in this moment, he is in outstanding shape,” he told Amazon Prime, as quoted by Empire of the Kop.
“But we changed five positions, and I was not brave enough to change a sixth position, that was the problem, otherwise he would have played as well.”
The 24-year-old has yet to start a single game in the Premier League this season and has only completed 14 minutes in the top flight.
OPINION
Keita will be sat on the bench wondering what more he has to do to earn more minutes under Klopp this season. The Reds’ boss himself admitted that the midfielder is in outstanding shape and is performing well, so surely that is enough to throw him into the action against a poor Everton side. The fact that he didn’t even get on the pitch as a substitute will also confuse the 24-year-old, with Jordan Henderson getting the nod ahead of him. Keita could bring a goal-threat from midfield into the side if given the chance, having been involved in more than 10 goals in back-to-back seasons with Red Bull Leipzig. With a Champions League tie against Red Bull Salzburg coming up, Keita will be hoping that he can get a chance to prove himself, and Klopp will surely select him if he is in as outstanding form as he suggested after the Everton clash.
