Five years ago, Liverpool paid RB Leipzig around $63 million to recruit their complete midfielder Naby Keita as an ideal replacement for club icon Steven Gerrard. Then aged just 23, Keita looked like he’ll be one of the world’s best midfielder dynamos in the following decade. But it didn’t play out that well.Now still only 28, the Guinea international should be in his prime years and playing regularly for the Reds. Instead, he’s rarely seen on the pitch and will most likely leave Anfield as a free agent when his contract expires in a few months.Naby Keita’s time at Liverpool is up, says @neiljonesgoal 📉— GOAL News (@GoalNews) February 25, 2023 Over the past five years, the Guinean has been repeatedly written off due to injuries or poor form. His coach Jurgen Klopp has stuck by him, insisting that Keita is an integral part of his squad. But his last performance or non-performance, should we say, against Crystal Palace, showed that Keita is heartbreakingly off pace. In 45 minutes on the pitch, he received a yellow card, made too many errors, was sluggish on the ball and lost ten duels against hungry Crystal Palace midfielders.##NAJAVA_MECA_7059489##It’s sad to see what injuries have done to such a good player. Too many muscle injuries and knocks have turned Keita into a shadow of the once-awesome player. Keita remains Liverpool’s most expensive midfield signing ever and fourth overall in their history behind Darwin Nunez, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker. Klopp’s faith in him was such that only one senior midfielder had been signed permanently in the five years since his arrival. It was Alcantara in 2020.When the day comes and Keita leaves Liverpool, he can say that he won every medal possible: Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and above all, Champions League. But he didn’t play in the 2019 UCL final against Spurs. And he only started nine of the 38 games in the Red’s Premier League-winning season. Keita’s impact on the team simply wasn’t nearly as telling as it was supposed to be.Is the 60,000,000 euros African midfielder the biggest failure of the Klopp era?Will the Guinean ever look like the player he once was? It depends on his health and the choice of his next club. There were rumours that Antonio Conte wanted to sign him for Tottenham, but it’s hard to believe that Spurs would risk getting an injury-prone player – even if it’s on a free transfer. There is a lot of football in Naby Keita, but he may not be able to show it on the biggest stage again.
