Even when there seems to be a lot of articles about Naby Keita lately due to his possible move to Liverpool FC, I’ve decided to write one myself because there always seem to be a few misconceptions about him.

Earlier today Didi Hammann mentioned in the echo a pleasurous line:”Signing for a promoted side, no-one knew what to expect and he was under the radar for a lot of people….” It’s fair to say I wasn’t one of those…

Finding the piece of love at Salzburg

The first time I’ve seen Naby Keita was late in the summer of 2014 for Red Bull Salzburg under Adolf Hütter by accident, I was trying to have a look at the best players out of the top 5 leagues in Europe and one of the first names I wanted to follow closely was Jonatan Soriano of already mentioned RB Salzburg when it hit me during a match vs Malmö when there was an energetic, highly intelligent player of a small size playing the deeper midfielder of the two – worth mentioning that Salzburg played the signature 4-2-2-2 system with two central midfielders, two wide attackers which are playing slightly off two strikers, altho interpretation of the system or formation can vary, the important thing is that both of those CMs are used as more like box-to-box with one being the more aggressive, progressive and the other one being the ‘sitting’ – you could say more relaxed and calm – which is something Naby wasn’t necessarily good at and his indiscipline, or rather inexperience led to him getting caught out of position and opening up space behind him which led to the first goal which they conceded from a penalty eventhough Naby was fast enough to track back, the space was open and exploited. Naby didn’t finish the match as he was substituted at half time, but he definitely left an impression on me which made me quite cautious about him as a player – worth noting that back then it was next to impossible to find anything about him.

One thing that is worth noting is that in the first half of the season Hütter tried to utilise Naby as the deeper, sitting midfielder which showed glimpses of what he can do with his exciting workrate, agility and being really strong in tackles while also being extremely intelligent with after-duel situations and quick thinking – but the flaws of his game along his size made Hütter change the team’s style and bringing in Ilsanker and later in the first half of the season also putting Naby on the bench. It wasn’t until the winter break when Hütter started to play Keita as the more advanced, proggressive and attacking central midfielder with, atleast in most cases, Ramalho as the sitting one – which led to him scoring 5 and assisting 2 in the 14 games in spring.

During the next season Naby went to his true best under Zeidler and after the winter break continued to excel under the new coach Oscar García. Again Naby was used in number of positions – whether it was the very familiar 4-2-2-2 system with the two roles set and him being finally allowed the freedom to join the attack and break the lines by his abilities and skills with Leitgeb, Benno Schmitz or even Laimer playing as the more defensive of the duo eventhough the whole team was aggressively attacking minded – or he’s also played in a diamond under García where he’s played at the tip of it under the strikers. He has always showed his amazing versatility and ability to adapt to his opposition.

The weird obsession with extremes

One thing that always happens when a player is linked to a club is that there are (in 90% of the cases) only two groups of fans – those who extremely underrate the potential signing and those, who go way too far in hyping him up. I’ve seen more people actually try to make fun of those, who are big fans of Naby, because he can’t be that good when in reality, he’s on a level very close to where Pogba was at Juventus in terms of his own game. With that I mean – that if you would go back and watch all of the games he’s played in 2016/17 at Leipzig, you probably wouldn’t find any which wouldn’t let you leave without a huge smile on your face if you only followed Naby the whole match (apart from that game vs Bayern….) – there are players like Emre Can, he’s a really big guy, big presence on the pitch – by that I mean that you really see him play and getting involved, even if he has a bad game, he’s always there, giving his 100% and putting big pressure on opposition players by being there, it’s something sort of like X-Factor, it’s something you can’t gain by shouting at other players, the referees or by going through someone, it’s something you have in you. Naby has a very similar thing in a way, that he knows how good he is, he thinks about himself as the best player on the pitch – not because he is arrogant, but because he knows that is what will bring his team the much needed points, victory, glory…

The actual player

You can go and watch videos, compilations, cut clips on whatever platform you are using to watch players, but none will tell you how big of a small player Naby Keita is.

There was way too many people trying to compare him to N’Golo Kanté, I suppose it’s because they are small, energetic and black, but in reality this shouldn’t really be a thing. Both of them should be able to be themselves, they are good enough to prove over the next few seasons – over the course of their career, that they deserve to be THE guys which are at the absolute top – for whatever reason Naby isn’t talked about in the same bracket as the best midfielders on the planet, I’d bet it’s because he’s only done it in one season in Bundesliga when that’s something which really shouldn’t matter, surely? He has proven the last season at RB Salzburg, that his style of play isn’t a fluke, it doesn’t have anything to do with form or being a one season wonder. I would go as far as that I’d say Leipzig wouldn’t finish in the top4 if they didn’t sign Keita.

He is in a bracket of his own, there isn’t any midfielder with similar playstyle around. His only genuine weakness is being weak in the air, which is sort of understandable considering he’s only 172cm tall – yet if you look at it from a statistical point of view, he still has a better aerial success rate than Nathaniel Clyne.

His most praised attribute is his dribbling, which is slick, smooth, always under control – that’s the thing, whatever he does and in whatever situation he is in, he is always in control, he knows what he wants to do and is able to execute it. His ability to dribble through opponents, through middle as if they were cones is exciting to watch and extremely purposeful, it breaks the line, it’s something not a lot of players do and it always causes a reaction – a lot of his assist are him dribbling through a midfielder – waiting for the moment the defender behind him makes a step forward to step out and at that moment he releases a perfect, precisely timed pass in behind for the striker. He does this in an extremely similar fashion to Andrés Iniesta. Which is something that goes unnoticed, or rather unspoken most of the times someone talks about him, his passing is absolutely phenomenal, it’s Xavi-esque, passing is for whatever reason overlooked a lot of the times – what I mean by that is that if you watch Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Paredes, Kroos or the little Guinean genius you can see the ball never puts the receiving player under pressure, it never bounces, it’s released in such a motion, that the ball more like glides on the surface, than rolls on the grass which causes no bouncing and gives the player receiving it way more options he can opt for – he doesn’t have to concentrate on just getting the ball under control which is one of the next things Naby loves to do, he will ride the ball and use an attacker for a one-two to find the channel or a pocket of space between the defensive lines, he does this regularly and it usually works out even vs deep sitting defence.

His defensive attributes may get overlooked due to his incredible attacking ability. His tackling especially has really improved, mainly due to Ralf Rangnick working on it with Naby this past summer to use his strength – his proactive, aggressive and well timed tackles – which he has a majestic 72% success rate (83 successful tackles also go along with 70 fouls, which isn’t perfect but it’s something he can work on).

Finding a place at Liverpool

I think this one is the biggest question of all if this deal goes through, his versatility and Klopp’s willingness to experiment can lead us into an era of something we haven’t really seen before or we can continue in the styles we’ve used so far. The most commonly used with the 4-1-2-2-1 in a [V] style in the place of either Gini as the deeper, connecting midfielder or the more advanced one in the place of Lallana. The possibilities with him would be endless, but if it happens – he has the potential to be a bigger and more influential player to this side than Coutinho, which should really make you all think about it. I have never ever been so sure about a player, I know I’m still a nobody in this moment, but with time it will sit in a place where it should be.