Liverpool stance on Naby Keita confirmed after surprise Guinea call up

The midfielder is currently sidelined due to injury, but was still named in the squad for his country's upcoming fixtures.


KIRKBY, ENGLAND - AUGUST 18: (THE SUN OUT, THE SUN ON SUNDAY OUT) Naby Keita of Liverpool during a training session at AXA Training Centre on August 18, 2022 in Kirkby, England.

Naby Keita has been named in the latest Guinea squad - despite Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp indicating the midfielder will be sidelined for an extended period through injury.

Keita hasn’t featured since the Community Shield win over Manchester City in July having followed a bout of illness with a muscle problem.

Concerns over the severity of the damage were raised when the 27-year-old was last week left out of the Reds’ squad for the Champions League group stages.

And Klopp subsequently admitted the player will be “out for a while” as he recovers from his latest setback.

Guinea have nevertheless named Keita in the squad for their forthcoming friendly matches against Algeria and the Ivory Coast at the end of the month.

However, the ECHO understands the player will not feature in the games as he continues his rehabilitation. Guinea boss Kaba Diawara, though, believes Keita could be back in a fortnight.

“His situation is improving and he is even ahead of schedule,” he said. “We took a group of 24 players precisely to give him a chance to be able to count on him because he is a very important player for us, on and off the pitch, he is our captain.

“We are monitoring his situation very closely. We still have a little over two weeks before our first game. Chances are we could get him back by then.”

Keita faces an uncertain future at Anfield given talks have stalled over a new deal with less than 12 months remaining on his present contract.

And reports in Germany last month claimed the player was unhappy with his game time at Liverpool, although the Reds had not received any feedback from the player or his representatives suggesting as such.

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/liverpool-naby-keita-guinea-squad-24961713

It's a miracle!!! less than 3 days ago he's not even made Klopp's 25 man squad for the Champions League because of injury and now we have the Guinea National Team Manager saying he could possibly be available in 2 weeks???

I'll have a pint of what Naby Keita has been drinking PLEASE!

There is no injury just a fight between player and manager and yet again player wins.

The club/manager completely mishandled this situation, Naby wanted to leave but the club thought that it would cost much more to replace him and decided to force him to stay. Now we are where we are. A midfielder was a priority from day 1 of the transfer window, the first player we were linked with was Tchouameni, but we ended up patching up cheaply on the last day of the transfer window.

Seems we keep missing out on Klopp's preferred targets:-

"Liverpool had long planned to sign Bruno Guimarães, still at Lyon at the time, this summer.

When the Brazilian was close to Newcastle in January, the Reds decided to back out of the race and turn to Tchouameni, who eventually left for Real Madrid."

(Source: @MelissaReddy_)

Same issue, we do not seem to have any money despite making the highest revenues last year from TV rights after competing in 4 competitions up to the end

Tchouameni is a very good player, so I get why we would have wanted him in a choice, but as soon as RM were involved, we were never going to get him, I expect similar will happen with Bellingham, we have given all the top clubs 2 years notice we want him, best to get in quick and early, sign them without any press, like we did with Fab etc, as soon as it is a bidding war, we have lost.

As for Naby, I cannot see how he can be unhappy with how much he plays, pretty much down to his injuries/possible injuries that his appearances have been limited, if he is fit he is involved in the squad, I just don't think his body can cope with the PL, so I expect he will leave on a free in the summer, then we will need about 3 midfielders, good luck with that !!!

This is why we should have sold Naby in the last window instead of giving him a new contract. Sometimes I don't understand what Klopp/the club are thinking

Did we give Naby a new contract? I thought he was in his last year? anyways, who would buy him, with his injury record, we would not be able to sell him, clubs will just wait for his contract to run out, similar to Origi.

Apparently he was given a new contract before he was injured but he was not happy with the terms and/or was benched when he was fit to play at the beginning of the season