‘Never seems to’: Pundit says he’s ‘given up’ on one Liverpool player who hasn’t lived up to his value

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Liverpool great John Aldridge says he’s ‘given up’ hope that Naby Keita will ever live up to his value. The midfielder has struggled.

John Aldridge sees the problems in Liverpool’s midfield right now, along with everyone else. There are too many injury concerns, essentially, and even elite players like Jordan Henderson and Thiago need to rest regularly.

That’s a problem when the players who would come in for them are unreliable. That’s something we saw at the weekend – Thiago went off but neither Naby Keita or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were on the bench.

It’s not exactly a new scenario for either player and Aldridge believes it’s time to just ‘give up’ on Keita ever living up to his value. He’s just not reliable enough.

“I’ve given up on him as it just feels like injuries are always around the corner,” Aldridge wrote for the Liverpool Echo. “You just want him to stay fit and give himself a chance, but it never seems to quite happen.

“We haven’t had the value from Keita we were expecting, which is something that hasn’t happened with many of the players we’ve signed in recent years.”

The hope for Naby Keita

There is little doubt that Keita has the talent of a £53m player – the figure Liverpool paid for him. We have seen it, after all, and some of his performances last season were incredible.

The problem is that those performances are few and far between. It’s one of the reasons Jamie Carragher called him the ‘strangest player’ he’d ever seen. He’s someone who does all the right things but just doesn’t seem to impact games as he should.

Injuries certainly play a part in that. Keita regularly lacks rhythm but when he gets it, he truly shines. Then another injury happens and we’re back to square one.

What we can say for sure, though, is that Liverpool won’t give up on him yet. There’s little reason to, after all, as his contract expires in 2023. Giving him everything he needs to earn a new long-term contract will be the priority.

The next six weeks are key, then. After that, Liverpool and Keita face some massive decisions.