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Following a difficult spell where he struggled to break into Liverpool’s starting XI on a regular basis, summer arrival Naby Keita is finally beginning to make his mark at Anfield.
The 24-year-old scored his first Premier League and Champions League goals for the club against Southampton and FC Porto respectively earlier this month, and he made the team-sheet for the third successive game in all competitions against Chelsea on Sunday.
The Guinea international may have won the man of the match award against the Portuguese outfit last week, but one stat proves that he still needs to improve a certain area of his game to truly win manager Jurgen Klopp over.
Being dispossessed
It happened on three occasions alone against the Blues at the weekend, according to WhoScored, which matched the tallies of teammates Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane as well as being one fewer than Mohamed Salah.
Of course, those three players should be expected to lose the ball in attacking areas more often given they should be taking opposition defenders on more often, which makes Keita’s number all the more disappointing.
Chelsea fans were giving it large at Anfield on Sunday. Watch their afternoon get slowly ruined in the video below…
As per WhoScored, he has lost the ball on average 1.2 times per game in his 23 Premier League appearances, way above Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and Georginio Wijnaldum, with only Firmino and Salah having an inferior record to him.
What does he need to do?
The former RB Leipzig midfielder is certainly working his way further into Klopp’s starting XI plans at the current time, but if he really wants to nail down a regular spot next term he needs to be better when on the ball.
Yes, the 24-year-old should be taking a few risks from central areas to try and get the likes of Salah, Firmono and Mane away on the attack, but there needs to be a balance and his manager also needs someone he can rely upon to keep the ball.
The stats suggest Keita isn’t doing enough in that respect right now.
The African midfielder has already shown a big improvement in recent months though and appears to have turned his Liverpool career around following a disappointing start, so you wouldn’t bet against him achieving this too.