Naby Keita

[Chip Butty]

I hope we haven't thrown the receipt away. 

[Guest]

From Baby Keith to Petit Keith...

 

Naby Keita’s younger brother has been training at Liverpool’s academy, according to a report.

ESPN claim Petit Keita, 17, was invited to Liverpool’s Kirkby complex and has been training with the academy after leaving his German club Inter Leipzig during the summer.

Striker Keita is now a free agent after leaving the fifth-tier German side to join his brother on Merseyside.

 

There have been no suggestions that a contract is from Liverpool is in the offing for Keita junior, who played for Leipzig’s Under-19s last season or whether he is simply building up his fitness before trying his luck elsewhere.

 

“He’s a classic centre-forward, who with aggressiveness and his work rate is up there with the U19s’ best strikers,” Inter Leipzig coach Heiner Backhaus told Fussball.DE in May.

 

Backhaus also claimed Petit was a “very willing to learn player”, who could speak fluent German after just a year in the country.

 

Backhaus also revealed how Inter Leipzig, who were only founded in 2014,  gave a home to the boys’ cousin Mohamed Camara.

 

“When Naby Keita moved to RB Leipzig, Petit Keita and Mohamed Camara were looking for an international, cosmopolitan club. We’ve always had good wires to RB Leipzig and wanted to give the boys a new home,” he added.

 

Lauded as a player with huge potential and destined for the Inter Leipzig first team, Backhaus also claimed: “He is a player with a top regional league format and is even better than Naby against the ball.

 

Liverpool paid £52.75million to sign Naby Keita from Red Bull Leipzig this summer after negotiating the transfer the previous summer.

[moof]

If it helps Nabs settle then give the lad a 5 year contract 

[Bjornebye]

Yeah and he is only 17 honest. He looks like he could be Keitas arl fella 

 

[Anubis]

Isn’t that the guy Si was trying to arrange a trial at Brechin for?

[Harry Squatter]

He looks like the astronaut who waits 25 years on the ship for Mathew Mconaughey to come back from the water planet in Interstellar.

[Mathewbet1]

He's great, we have some many options now.

[Aventus]

9 hours ago, Bjornebye said:

Yeah and he is only 17 honest. He looks like he could be Keitas arl fella 

 

I've seen worse 17 year olds. 

[General Dryness]

Hardest. Paper. Round. Ever.

 

Ever ever ever.

[VladimirIlyich]

He's alreet is Petit.

[razor]

9 hours ago, Aventus said:

I've seen worse 17 year olds. 

For anyone who missed this: https://www.joe.ie/uncategorized/italian-fa-confirm-that-lazio-youth-player-joseph-minala-is-indeed-17-and-not-42-434380

[Ginny]

Any news on Naby. Klopp easing him in or what? 

[karl1987]

1 minute ago, Ginny said:

Any news on Naby. Klopp easing him in or what? 

Still injured.

[Ginny]

5 minutes ago, karl1987 said:

Still injured.

Didn’t realise he was injured. Cheers 

[karl1987]

15 minutes ago, Ginny said:

Didn’t realise he was injured. Cheers 

Injured during the international break.  Think its a hamstring injury.

[sir roger]

Klopp said he will be out next week as well.

[Caramac]

Paul Joyce article from The Times..

 

Quote

In one clip he would be bursting beyond a rival and delivering an incisive pass for a team-mate and, in another, adding momentum to an attack by cleverly switching the play.

 

There was footage of opposition raids being broken up with metronomic regularity and moments where the tempo was set simply by a trick which allowed possession to be kept.

The YouTube compilations of Naby Keïta’s best bits for RB Leipzig sustained Liverpool supporters during much of last season as anticipation of the midfielder’s looming arrival grew by the week, even while Jürgen Klopp’s side were blazing a trail in Europe.

The expectation was the £53 million midfielder would add a fresh dimension and watching Liverpool stutter against Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday signposted how such prophecies must also now become a reality.

In the noisy, cavernous bowl of the Stadion Rajko Mitic, the visitors lacked anyone in the engine room capable of bringing order to the chaos, adding a flourish of creativity and ensuring the game was played to Liverpool’s tune instead of the beat set by raucous hosts.

Keïta watched the tumult play out on the sidelines, alongside another expensive summer midfield recruit in £43 million Fabinho, having just returned to the squad following a hamstring injury which interrupted his quest for meaningful rhythm.

Thus far, Keïta’s time at Anfield has been start-stop to only succeed in fuelling a sense of frustration. After beginning the first three matches of the campaign, he has been restricted by a number of factors to only 304 minutes since being substituted shortly after the hour mark of a slender victory over Brighton & Hove Albion on August 25.

That game was also the last time Klopp picked an unchanged midfield with Keïta lining up to the left of the deep-lying Georginio Wijnaldum and James Milner on the right of the triumvirate.

Since then, there have been tweaks in personnel with captain Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana and Fabinho featuring while injuries and switches in formation, 4-3-3 morphing into 4-2-3-1, meaning any sense of continuity in the middle has been elusive. Fabinho and Wijnaldum started against Red Star and Cardiff City at home back-to-back, but there were changes in front of them.

Yet it feels like the time is now right to see just what Keïta can do over a run of games, starting with Fulham on Sunday, as Liverpool seek to rediscover their spark in what is developing into an incongruous campaign.

The paucity of their Champions League adventure to date jars with results in the Premier League where a win over Fulham will equal the club’s best points return after 12 games in the modern era.

Manchester City’s continued excellence serves to distort the matters elsewhere.

Still, this is an interesting period for Klopp, who admitted in Belgrade that his team has not been performing as he would wish and must now seek to re-energise them after a run of three wins in nine matches which has shone a light on the issue of squad depth once again.

Daniel Sturridge showed against Red Star that if he does not score, he is not a deputy for Roberto Firmino because he has different attributes to the Brazilian. That is not his fault but very much Liverpool’s problem when the alternative is Divock Origi or Dominic Solanke. The likelihood is one of those will be allowed to leave in January, permanently or temporarily, if suitors present the right deal.

Liverpool need to fly out of the blocks against Fulham; play fast, play hard, run themselves to a standstill and if that means players have to withdraw from their international commitments as a result so be it.

The absence of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain remains a blow, but Klopp knew back in April that he would be out for the best part a year after his knee effectively exploded in a tackle on Roma’s Aleksandar Kolarov.

Keïta was perceived as the panacea for any problems in midfield and Fabinho trumpeted as a transfer coup, too.

It is time for at least one of them to prove as much. First up should be Keïta. Any victory will ensure Liverpool their best ever goal difference in the Premier League at this stage of a season and a clean sheet secures the least number of goals ever conceded in the Premier League after a dozen matches.

 

 

[Bobby Hundreds]

Has kieta played for us in the same position/role as he did for his last club or in the handful of games he has played for us does it look like he's being asked to be a different type of player. Never watched him before we bought him.

 

[Lycan]

He really needs to start stepping up now. Our midfield is crying out for a dynamic midfielder and we bought on the premise he was just that. Time to start showing what a good footballer you are Naby lad.

[Daisy]

He's stunk of Lazar so far. 

 

Time to show everyone you aren't a massive pussy Naby. 

[Bjornebye]

Him and Fabinho are just adapting. That midfield was crying out for Keita on Tuesday night. We lacked energy especially with Wijnaldum doing a regular disappearing act away from home. 3 wins in 9 games..... Somethings got to give. 

[Jennings]

He'll turn out great.

[aRdja]

7 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

Him and Fabinho are just adapting. That midfield was crying out for Keita on Tuesday night. We lacked energy especially with Wijnaldum doing a regular disappearing act away from home. 3 wins in 9 games..... Somethings got to give. 

Yup agreed. It’s a step up in terms of competition. I’m sure they’ll come good at some stage. We’re unfortunate that Ox is out as well at the moment.

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

He is a top player, we’ve been patient with far far lesser players.

[Numero Veinticinco]

6 minutes ago, VERBAL DIARRHEA said:

He is a top player, we’ve been patient with far far lesser players.

Are you suggesting that four league starts isn’t enough to throw away the key?