Robbo opens up on Keita’s struggles & offers Naby support

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Naby Keita is simply experiencing a period of adjustment that most of Liverpool’s new signings do under Jurgen Klopp – and will come out the other side.

That’s according to his team-mate Andy Robertson, who went through a similar thing last season – if not for quite as long.

Robbo is now the Premier League’s best left-back by a considerable distance, but it actually took him until December in his first season to get into the team.

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Keita has been used fleetingly, but often in different positions and has rarely played back-to-back games – which has made it hard for him to build up a proper rhythm.

“I think all the lads that have come in have experienced very similar,” he told the Echo.

“Me and Chambo (Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain) experienced it last season. Naby (Keita) is experiencing it a wee bit now, Fabinho has experienced it, Shaq (Xherdan Shaqiri) has experienced it.

“It’s just learning and of course the massive expectations that come with playing for Liverpool sometimes takes a wee bit of getting used to. It did for me and once I got used to it I’ve not really looked back.

“Fabinho took his time and now we are getting the rewards from it. Of course he would have preferred to play further forward in the last couple of games but we needed him to help keep a clean sheet and we managed it so all credit goes to him for that.”

Liverpool’s title challenge has ironically affected Keita a little bit, as Klopp isn’t in a position to blood a player into his tactical set-up when he doesn’t believe they are ready.

Technically, Keita is superb and should be starting for us every week, but tactically he’s our worst midfielder – partly due to the fact he came to football without an Academy background and only played in a midfield two for Rb Leipzig.

We truly believe the Guinean will come good – but think we might have to wait until next season to see what Keita really has to offer.

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