Naby Keita was rated as one of the most exciting players in Europe upon his arrival at Liverpool in 2018.
Of course, we’d actually agreed his transfer in 2017, which meant a year of salivating over the prospect of him lighting up the Premier League…
In two years at the club, he’s won the Champions League and will win the Premier League when this season is eventually allowed to finish – but his individual impact upon proceedings has not been as high as we expected upon the marquee signing.
In fact, Keita has spent much time on the sidelines, with niggling, seemingly inconsequential injuries – and more often that not – Jurgen Klopp has chosen to field the midfielders he trusts more in terms of their fitness and their ability to obey him tactically.
These are traditionally Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum, but Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was fairly ahead of Keita in the pecking order before the coronavirus pandemic curtailed the season.
Klopp also has his trusted lieutenants Adam Lallana and James Milner competing for minutes, and although the former is going to leave at the end of this campaign – whenever that will be – there have been legitimate questions about if Keita is needed long-term.
However, Football Insider claim sources at the club have told them Klopp remains completely faithful to the Guinean – the man who took Steven Gerrard’s iconic no.8 and was expected to fulfil it.
For us, this is great news. We appreciate Keita’s potential massively – and after two years in England – he should be properly settled and must surely have a better grasp of the language – something he oddly didn’t master during the year prior to his switch.
We can’t wait to see Keita and co. back on the field, but for now – there’s no football to speak of! However, the Australian league is still happening – so if you want your football fix – head there. The online casinos accepting AUD – Australian Dollars too.
There are discussions for the Premier League to be completed in the summer during a quarantined tournament, where all 20 teams would stay in the vicinity of St. George’s Park and compete at the national facility which has almost 30 pitches.
It would be a jaw-dropping TV event, and would enable us to secure the Premier League title. It’ll be bizarre, but at this point, we’ll pretty much accept anything that confirms us as champions.
