Jurgen Klopp backs Liverpool star Naby Keita despite taking him off at half time against Atletico
According to Liverpool Echo, Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp has defended Naby Keita despite his half-time substitution against Atletico Madrid. Klopp was speaking to the media after Liverpool’s 3-2 win against the Spanish champions in the Champions League.
The Guinean scored the second goal for the Reds after Mohamed Salah gave them an early lead. The English club had thrown away a 2-0 lead following some poor defending. Keita was partly responsible for Atleti’s two goals.
Klopp made a tactical change at half-time, replacing Keita with Fabinho. However, the German boss firmly defended his midfielder, claiming that the issues were not down to one player. He continued by saying that the team was a bit too wide.
“First and foremost, it was nothing to do with Naby – we just had to defend the right side a bit better. We were a bit too wide, but Naby scored a goal and stuff like this and I spoke to him already.”
The Reds coach further added that the 26-year-old has played a lot of minutes recently and it was right to replace him. He also claimed that the midfielder is in great shape and he wants to maintain that.
“It is really important to me that nobody thinks we played the first half – or the second part of the first half – because of Naby. Not at all.”
There is absolutely no need to blame one layer for the club’s mishaps and Klopp was right in protecting his player in public. While he will be prudent to have a private word with the 26-year-old, not throwing him under the bus shows excellent man-management.
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The 54-year-old boss was right to defend his player from ‘criticism’ during the post-match press conference. And as Klopp claimed, the issues were not entirely down to a player as it would be a ‘lazy criticism’.
