You might not have seen them, but he has had some good games for Liverpool. He had injury problems first season, whilst at the same time Klopp had a very settled midfield that was like a machine, a combination of circumstances more than Keita himself contributed to him not getting a regular place. You look at what happened to Ndombele last season, or Son in his first couple of seasons, football isn't always simply a case of if your good you'll start games.
I still like Keita very much, I think he'd walk into almost any other top PL midfield. He has a real all-round, multifunctional skillset that's much sought after.
Found these quotes which kind of tally with what I'm saying:
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp insists he has never doubted the quality of Naby Keita and has lifted the lid on the reassuring words of advice he's had to give the Guinean midfielder.
www.teamtalk.com
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
Keita 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.”
