It’s the first rule of the start of the season: don’t say anything hugely premature about title races or champions elect. Or at least, don’t tweet anything hugely premature that can be ironically retweeted when you most likely turn out to be wrong. Definitely don’t write anything hugely premature in an article, ready to be screengrabbed and posted on social media where it can remain – a shameful epitaph on your digital tombstone – from now until the end of time.
Oh, and definitely, whatever you do, don’t hail a club as the new ‘Invincibles’, a trap into which several columnists walked last season with Manchester City before a 4-3 defeat to Liverpool in January left them bundled up together in the waiting tripwire net.
Having beaten City three times in all competitions last term – once on that cold January evening at Anfield and twice when they met in Europe – Liverpool have at least given the commentariat good reason to think that they could challenge the current champions’ slick hegemony over the Premier League. Jurgen Klopp’s side are better placed than any time in recent memory to have a serious crack at the title, which is about as measured a judgement as can be delivered at this early stage in the campaign.
If this really is going to be Liverpool’s year, they will need Naby Keita to produce a season’s worth of performances like that he gave at Selhurst Park on Monday night. Where it was once conventional wisdom to suggest that new arrivals would need time to bed into English football, Keita has made a breakneck start to life in our absurdly hallowed top flight.
Human Pez dispenser
Widely praised for his authoritative showing against West Ham in his competitive debut at Anfield, Keita was full of sharp transitions and neat balls forward against Crystal Palace. He spent the first half passing like a human Pez dispenser, rhythmically popping out balls at timely intervals – a tidy little automaton working in an inexplicably satisfying fashion.
He seems to think in passing triangles – give and go, turn and offload – like a supercomputer dreaming in code, more an ultramodern pace-setter than an old-fashioned play-maker. Keita was far more than just functional in the midfield, however, with the highlight of the first half coming when he skipped past a tackle, turned on his heel in Liverpool’s final third and almost provided a lofted assist to Mohamed Salah in what seemed like one fluid movement. Unfortunately, his teammate could only loop a shot over the crossbar.
Having seen a thumping effort saved at the near post by Wayne Hennessey not long after that moment of genius, Keita shuttered through his wide range of talents in a five-minute microcosm. He also showed himself a capable disruptor when called upon, intercepting and breaking up play here and there in the rare intervals where Palace had the ball for a concerted spell.
Though he was hailed as a ready-made gegenpresser when he was still at RB Leipzig, Keita’s first two outings in the Premier League have showcased a player who seems equally comfortable with the ball as he does without it. While Liverpool were not at their best against a doughty and durable Palace side – even when the hosts went down to ten men – he was nonetheless instrumental in their second win of the new campaign.
“Naby, we all have no clue how good he can be. He’s too young to judge him,” said Klopp when asked about the former Leipzig man earlier this week. Judging by the way he twisted and turned, a perfectly programmed android of a footballer set to the anachronistic, brown-brick backdrop of Selhurst Park, Keita’s potential at Liverpool looks, at this moment, to be almost unlimited.
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