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Naby Keita’s reintroduction to the side this December, putting in back to back man of the match performances against Bournemouth and Red Bull Salzburg, has seen the discussion spark up once again about the Guinean international signed for £52.75million ($69million) in July 2018.

That performance against Bournemouth, in terms of xG Chain*, came to 1.53; this was the highest of any central midfielder for Liverpool, and the fifth-highest amongst all Liverpool players, since the start of the season.

As well as having three shots and creating three chances - resulting in a goal and an assist - Keita was also credited with an xG Buildup* of 0.80 for his involvement in creating chances, for which he neither was the final shot taker or played the final pass against Bournemouth.

However, there has also been some shade thrown his way: “it was only Bournemouth”, “he was poor all of last season” or that “he is a defensive liability” were all common responses to his showing.

So, lets now take a look at some of the more common criticisms against Keita and try to measure whether they are legitimate concerns, or myths masqueraded as unchallenged facts.

Klopp doesn't trust him in big games

Last season, Klopp started Keita in the league versus Spurs, Manchester United, Chelsea and Leicester. He also played the majority of the match Manchester City after an injury to James Milner in the opening minutes of the match.

In the Champions League, he started in Naples and Barcelona, as well as the first legs against both Bayern Munich and Porto at home.

He has been out of favour following a spate of injuries, starting after picking up a groin injury against FC Barcelona. This was aggravated in the summer playing in the African Cup of Nations, and since he has struggled to get back to full fitness.

(Image: Photo credit should read PAUL ELLIS/AFP/Getty Images)

It seems his cameo against Manchester United has quickly been forgotten, where he came on in the final seven minutes and was instrumental in changing the game for Liverpool.

On this evidence, Keita missed some big games last season more due to injury rather than a lack of trust from his manager. However, when he has been involved, either from the start or as a substitute, he has had a positive impact on our performances and results.

Keita is weak defensively

Interestingly, in the 556 minutes played in those aforementioned big games, Liverpool conceded only twice while Keita was on the pitch. One of those was Jesse Lingard’s goal from a cross fumbled by Alisson. The other was a goal from a set-piece, scored by Harry Maguire.

That is a relatively small sample of games. Therefore, take a look at Liverpool’s defensive metrics as a team for all league minutes when Keita was on the pitch last season, compared to their season averages. The other players who played in his position last season are also included by means of comparison.

(Image: CraqueStats)

(You can view the high-resolution image of this graphic here).

It is no surprise to see Liverpool concede fewest goals when Gini Wijnaldum plays. This is consistent with each season under Jürgen Klopp, as his desire to stay central when playing in midfield and his tactical level helps the Reds stay compact and harder to play through.

However, Keita is not far behind him in terms of goals conceded per 90 while on the pitch, clocking 0.51 versus 0.49. James Milner on 0.56 and Jordan Henderson on 0.59 are a little higher.

In terms of expected goals against (xGA) per 90, we see Keita as the top performer. This suggests that the quantity and/or quality of chances Liverpool allow their opponents is at its lowest.

The overperformance is also an interesting thing to note. There is a lot of variances involved with goals, as discussed previously when looking at central defensive partnerships. Liverpool tends to outperform their xG at both ends of the pitch in recent seasons due to the quality they have now in both boxes. However, Alisson was a constant for all matches Liverpool played in the league last season. Yet there is a considerable difference between the xG and Goals Conceded numbers.

While it is possible that certain midfielders allow Liverpool to play more compact, which would lead to more blocked and missed shooting chances with a better pressure on shot takers at the point of shooting, it is probably wise to treat this as variance.

Liverpool play better without Keita

Of course, Liverpool possibly set up more defensively with Keita on the pitch knowing that they need to cover for “his defensive liabilities”. It has been suggested the team actually play better and look more threatening without him in the side.

(Image: CraqueStats)

(You can view the high-resolution image of this graphic here).

As seen above, this patently is not the case. When Keita plays, there is an average of 25 shots in games involving Liverpool compared to the team’s average of 23.

In terms of how the shots are shared proportionately between the two teams, Liverpool also has the highest share of those shots when Keita is on the pitch. In fact, all metrics surrounding Liverpool’s attacking play show that, when Keita is participating, they are a more dangerous side to play against without sacrificing any stability defensively. Whether it is shots, shots on target, xG* or goals per 90 – when Keita is present, Liverpool were at their best.

(Image: CraqueStats)

(You can view the high-resolution image of this graphic here).

Keita was poor when involved last season

Getting back to xG Chain as mentioned earlier, Keita is the only midfielder with individual performance in the top ten for any of Liverpool players last season.

Roberto Firmino, 3.3 versus Burnley Naby Keita, 2.2 versus Huddersfield Sadio Mané, 2.2 versus Huddersfield Sadio Mané, 2.15 versus Burnley Andy Robertson, 2.12 versus Huddersfield Mohamed Salah, 2.1 versus Huddersfield Mohamed Salah, 2.1 versus Bournemouth Virgil van Dijk, 1.98 versus Huddersfield Naby Keita, 1.95 versus West Ham Sadio Mané, 1.82 versus West Ham

He was also their leading midfielder per 90 minutes played in: Non-Penalty (NP) goals, NP xG, xGBuildup, xGChain, Open Play Shot Involvement, Open Play Big Chance Involvement, Successful Dribbles, Total Ground Duels Won.

Defensively, he had the second-highest number of tackles and defensive ground duels won, behind only Fabinho, yet did not pick up a single yellow card.

A frequent complaint is that Keita gives the ball away too easily. Yet aside from Wijnaldum, who is a freak of nature in terms of protecting the ball, Keita also leads the other midfielders here.

Wijnaldum - 7.47

Keïta - 10.56

Fabinho - 11.85

Henderson - 12.26

Milner - 16.4

One problem that exists with using individual stats in a team game is that tactically poor footballers in midfield can often have high individual stats, sometimes at the detriment of the team. As an extreme example, if you imagine a player who just always runs towards the ball like kids in playground football, he will likely see a lot of the ball but the team will have to work hard to cover or pay their ‘tactical debts’ for them.

This doesn’t seem to be the case with the team metrics analysed so far, in which Liverpool has absolutely excelled when he has been involved. Indeed, of the 16 starts he had in the league last season, Liverpool won 14 and drew twice. This represents an average of 2.75 points per game, which equates to a 105-point season.

Looking at the average points won for each of the five central midfielders when starting, it shows Fabinho on 2.62 (or a 100-point season), Gini on 2.52 (or a 96-point season), Henderson on 2.38 (or a 90-point season) and Milner on 2.32 (or an 88-point season).

Of course, there are millions of variables at play here, and any could be considered to have an impact on some or all of the above. However, applying Occam’s Razor – if all the above suggests these narratives are false, maybe they are simply false narratives.

*Notes on metrics used in the article:

P90 – Per 90s played. This is all minutes played divided per 90 mins, so whilst a player can be listed with 30 appearances if he only plays 10 mins in each game this would show as 300/90 = 3.33 (ie the equivalent of 3.3 games)

xG - Expected Goals. In layman’s terms, xG is the probability that a shot results in a goal. This calculation is based on numerous in-game variables with pitch location being the most influential. For example, a tap-in from a yard out could result in an xG of 0.95: in other words, 95 times out of a 100 it results in a goal. These individual shot probabilities are often aggregated for an overall assessment.

xG Buildup – Sometimes simply called xGBuild. This is the sum of xG for every shot his team has in which he is part of the buildup to the shot but which he does NOT take the final shot or make the final pass. Note - this is not a qualitative measure of the individual’s involvement, it just denotes that he was involved in the passage of play.

xG Chain - is the same as xG Buildup but it also includes the xG when you are the shot taker or final pass maker.

NP – Non-Penalty. Penalties are often removed in analytics as they are rare, high scoring probability events that can skew analysis.

OP - Open Play, ie. excludes penalties, corners, free-kicks etc.

All data and graphics used in this article are provided by @CraqueStats