Jurgen Klopp responds to claims suggesting Naby Keita may leave Liverpool soon

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Liverpool are back in action today as they take on Manchester United in the Premier League.

The Reds’ disappointing season continued with a 1-1 draw against Newcastle United last week, and they must look to bounce back today.

Some are already looking towards the summer, with Liverpool expected to make some changes to Jurgen Klopp’s squad.

The Sunday World reported on Friday that Liverpool may look to axe Naby Keita this summer, with the former RB Leipzig man potentially available.

Keita was an exciting addition for Liverpool when he joined from RB Leipzig for £52.75million in 2018, having excelled in the Bundesliga.

However, Keita hasn’t been able to replicate that form in England, with niggling injuries continuing to halt his progress at Anfield.

It seems unlikely that the 26-year-old will start today, but he has received the backing of manager Jurgen Klopp ahead of the trip to Old Trafford and in light of those rumours.

Klopp is adamant that Keita is training well and his long-term future is with Liverpool, but feels that a need for stability in midfield – given the chaos in defence this season – means Keita hasn’t been given the chances he needs.

“It’s a lot of things in this year, it was really tricky. We had to change so often and then in the moment you try to go for stability, it’s really like this and that’s what we need,” said Klopp. “You can see now for example, Man United – I think the last line played nearly the last 20 games together. Then you can make changes everywhere because you have a proper basis. We never had that.”

“Then on top of that, then making two or three changes in midfield just doesn’t work out in football. People say, ‘Try it.’ We would try definitely if we could be not only nearly sure that it could work out, but you need stability in a football team. Other teams are too good that you just make eight or nine changes. That hit a few players this year. Some of them were of course injured, coming back took a while.”

“Naby trains really well in the moment, I have to say. He trains really well, like a lot of other players, and looks really good in training. But this year now we need stability. We will make changes from time to time definitely, but it’s not like we pick now seven, eight, nine players to change and say, ‘Maybe we can win it like this.’ The long-term future of Naby Keita, from my point of view, is here, yes,” he added.