Keita’s quality never in doubt, Klopp pleased to give Mane rest
Liverpool boss, Jurgen Klopp insists he has never doubted the quality of £52.7million midfielder Naby Keita.
Keita, who arrived at Anfield to much fanfare in the summer of 2018, has been reduced to a peripheral figure and played a limited role in last season’s Champions League success and the club’s current 33-game Premier League unbeaten run.
The Guinea international gave a reminder of his ability with a goal and an assist on his first top-flight start of the campaign in Saturday’s 3-0 win at Bournemouth.
Reds boss Klopp, who has reassured the 24-year-old about his lack of first-team opportunities, admits the relentless form of his league leaders and a series of tight matches have made it difficult to give him minutes.
“Naby had injuries, the team is in really good shape, so then do you change?,” said Klopp.
“We are not flying, it’s not like we won all of the games 4-0, or 5-0, so we had to bring on a player who helps us with defending set-pieces.
“Then Naby is sitting outside thinking, ‘why don’t I play?’ I get all that.
“So we stayed in contact, we talked and we spoke a lot about it.
“But in the end of course a player needs to have this evidence that the manager still believes in you. I was never in doubt about that.
“It was just unlucky and in life you need luck always. He started (his Liverpool career) really well – everybody forgot that – then got injured. And again we had two really good seasons.
“(I was) never in doubt about his quality.”
Former RB Leipzig player Keita doubled Liverpool’s advantage at the Vitality Stadium and then slipped in Mohamed Salah for the third after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain opened the scoring.
Liverpool last lost a league game back in early January but, despite building a sizeable points advantage over Leicester and Manchester City at the top of the table, Klopp is not getting carried away.
The comfortable nature of the south coast success meant Klopp was afforded the luxury of giving breathers to unused substitutes Divock Origi – who scored twice in Wednesday’s Merseyside derby win over Everton – and Sadio Mane ahead of Tuesday’s crunch European clash with RB Salzburg.
Klopp also gave midfielders Adam Lallana and Georgino Wijnaldum the weekend off because of minor injury concerns.
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He believes resting and rotating his players will be key to successfully negotiating a hectic December schedule and competing in five different competitions.