Naby Keita

[Buzzo]

Hamstring injury.

Probably shouldn't have started after missing training.

rushed him back. Wonder if he is worried about his injuries and forcing it a bit. That was a heavy knock he took from Pogba.

[labourRed]

Hamstring injury.

Probably shouldn't have started after missing training.

[Doc_Piptorious]

60 games is a deceiving stat, this is his 4th season for us & Keita has managed just 3071 minutes in the league & you have to factor in how many of those are "coming" back from injury mins too.

Some people think he's good, some don't, each to their own but putting opinions aside ... facts show that he is an absolutely ****ing crock unfortunately & cannot be relying upon to have a sustained run in the team. Thiago seems exactly the same too. We need more options in there and have to do something in the Jan window imo.

That is why I said 60 including yesterday's game to highlight it did not mean 90 minutes games.

As for him being a good player or not. Well I think it is very obvious that he is a good player and that he is one of the few in our team that is press resistant. That was highlighted after he went off yesterday ad Brighton were able to run an effective press on all our midfielders after Keita went off.

I have only one issue with Keita, unfortunately it is one that impacts the team a lot, and that is his availability season after season.

Someone like Chamberlain on the other hand I have the same issues with regards to availability but unlike Keita I also doubt Chamberlain's abilities when fit.


Last season when Wijnaldum was showing himself to be in decline on the pitch (whereas his availability has never been in question) I wanted us to get a new midfielder (or two) in the summer gone. Wijnaldum has shown since he left us that his poor on pitch form is something that is very much ongoing and he has looked really awful on the pitch for PSG since day one for them.

Don't think you and I will disagree on what we both think are the bigger issues with our midfield though and do not think we would differ a lot in how we would like to see them fixed.


For me we have some real top quality amongst our best midfielders in Fabinho, Thiago and Henderson but between the three they are prone to either injuries or getting to an age where they may need their minutes managed a bit in the case of Henderson.

Our problem is that when we need to manage the minutes of those three our back up are either not good enough (or not good enough yet on a consistant basis on the case of Jones) or are injury prone themselves and in need of game time management themselves.


Basically we have


Fabinho - Top class but needs maybe a bit of game managment and proper cover.

Thiago - Top class but very much needs regular cover as is injury prone with us.


Henderson - Top class but looks like his body is suffering at times and needs plenty of game management. Probably close to being ready to taking the Milner role tbh.



Keita - Good player with a lot of qualities that compliment the players around him, but is very injury prone and as such he is another player that needs cover when he should be the one being cover or competing for a starting berth.


Chamberlain - Very injury prone and imo past it as a player at the level we need. Cannot be relied upon when fit and also cannot be relied upon to be fit when needed.


Jones/Elliot - Young players full of potential but imo need to be used when there are two senior guys in the team at the same time and not used in a weaker midfield when and where possible.


Milner - Great servant to the club, but surely in his final season as a semi regular and maybe ready to transistion to the coaching staff.



Probably seems like a lot but I do think we should be considering two and maybe three midfielders if we could shift two of the above (Keita (even though I do rate him highly), Chamberlain and Milner would be where I would be looking to make the cuts)


Just look at if we had Fabinho, Thiago and Henderson as our go to guys for the season and we had maybe Keisse, Nkunku and someone like Tchouameni sitting there with Jones as our next string who are also competing to be starteres and not just cover.

Nkunku could play in the most advanced CM slot but also be cover in attack. Guy has a crazy engine on him, presses well, is hard to press against and is a pretty durable player.

Keisse is another high energy guy with a bit of size and can play box to box or can play in a role similar to what Wijnaldum did for us prior to last season.

Tchouameni then would be a young strong guy with a bit of size, pace and trenth who can play in the deepest role in midfield and playmaker from there but he also plays very well in a box to box role.


Three guys all with pace, and physical, all skillful and all with no sgortage of ability so they would be able to put our go to guys under pressure for the starting berths but also give us really good quality in depth. All three also are guys who take on responsibility on the pitch and gee up teammates.

Now I am not expecting us to just go out and buy all three. But two look gettable real soon as Keisse has refused to sign a new contract and I think his current one runs out in the sumer, and Nkunku has a buy out clause that will be active soon. Tchouameni would probably be expensive.

Just think we are reaching a point where loyalty to some players needs to be replaced with pragmatism once a certain amount of time and loyalty has been given.

Do think that some freshening up to the current squad with quality and reducing the average age a little more would turn our current squad from being one that is already a title challenging one to one that looks more like being the squad everyone else has to chase.

[ric.williams]

60 games is a deceiving stat, this is his 4th season for us & Keita has managed just 3071 minutes in the league & you have to factor in how many of those are "coming" back from injury mins too.

Some people think he's good, some don't, each to their own but putting opinions aside ... facts show that he is an absolutely ****ing crock unfortunately & cannot be relying upon to have a sustained run in the team. Thiago seems exactly the same too. We need more options in there and have to do something in the Jan window imo.

I can understand the frustrations with Nabys injury record. He is always injured or just back from and I think that adds to peoples expectations. On his debut I thought he looked the real deal but he just cant seem to manage a run of games. He was just getting going when he got done by Pogba

Is Thiagos record that bad? He arrived got covid then got done by Richarlison but otherwise hasnt he been fine?

I think we started with 8 options in midfield so i think the numbers are enough but its the drop in quality and the reliability of those to be fit when needed that is the issue.

[Big-Red-Ed]

I've often been a critic but fair dues he has been excellent lately and we went to **** after he went off.

YNWA

[danperkins]

60 including today afaik

60 games is a deceiving stat, this is his 4th season for us & Keita has managed just 3071 minutes in the league & you have to factor in how many of those are "coming" back from injury mins too.

Some people think he's good, some don't, each to their own but putting opinions aside ... facts show that he is an absolutely ****ing crock unfortunately & cannot be relying upon to have a sustained run in the team. Thiago seems exactly the same too. We need more options in there and have to do something in the Jan window imo.

[RichC]

Game started to turn when he went off.

[Doc_Piptorious]

He’s played more than four games?

60 including today afaik

[Kenneth]

He’s played more than four games?

[SB]

Naby Keïta has only lost four Premier League games in his career.

81.4% win rate. ��

[SB]

Available for selection apparently

[Angryred]

Small airbags might be the way forward

Are you thinking of bubble wrap?

Let's do him up like the Michelin Man!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqBAxGlBheg"]The CRAZY Story Behind the Michelin Man - YouTube[/ame]

[Norbs]

I dunno, sounded like he was touching wood when he said it, so we should be ok.

Yeah, let him off this time but I'll keep my eye on him and I'll bring down the ban hammer if necessary

[Fosterbloke]

I think I'm going to stick custard creams under my hat and start a fight.

[Scratch]

Going from being a player who could be injured by grass to being back in training 4 days after being stretchered off.

Is this finally it, is this the turnaround we’ve been waiting for?

https://twitter.com/lfc/status/1453755656364773383

Don't jinx it!!!!!

Yeah, thanks alot Pepe

I dunno, sounded like he was touching wood when he said it, so we should be ok.