Anfield Until The End 17/18

Naby Keïta (Marquee/Record Signing): Midfielder

What is this? Is this the real world? Or is this fantasy? Caught in a mudslide--

Okay, you get it. 

These things hardly ever happen, if they even have happened before. Last time this happened in a sort of way is with Marko Grujic, who was bought but immediately loaned back to the club we bought him from for the rest of the summer ( we bought him in the winter of 2016). Other than that, I'm very much not sure. Would love it if someone mentioned a time Liverpool did this that I'm forgetting.

Let's get to this, though!

Naby comes in at a nice 5'8, not as tall as Sadio Mané or Roberto Firmino, but certainly not the shortest person either. To continue to say what I've been saying from day one, we're simply going to need taller people. As shown in our first two (possibly three) matches, we really open ourselves up to problems when we get stuck in a set-piece position. The taller the guy the better for us, especially when the taller option can do a good job when it comes to set-pieces. Overall, height doesn't bog this guy down, but he uses it to a great advantage. The video above says that it's his weakness, but having seen him play against Dortmund, I don't agree as much with this.

Keita is like a midfield maestro. He dictates the play and sets up the people around him for a wonderful goal each and every time. He's the kind of guy to make football look easy and exquisite at the exact same time as well as possibly assisting himself for a screamer all at the same time. I'm not making this up, to put it simply. RB Leipzig hasn't started off nearly as well as they did last year but they finished second last year, ahead of Dortmund, which is no small feat in the Bundesliga, especially if it means that they were challenging for the title, all in their first season in the Bundesliga. But the club is run by money, so it's not nearly as exciting as it should be. Let's get back to Keita.

Is Naby Keita a guy that will run? He'll certainly put in a very good shift for us in the next coming season, but it will not be like Salah and Mané blistering down the pitch. Think of him as someone who has the same amount of pace that Firmino does or better (most likely better) but half the time he's on the ball, so it may look just a bit subdued like Emre Can. Don't worry about his off the ball work, though, it's not like Özil, or how he's described to be. He works his socks off, as RB Leipzig work in a much similar way as we do and while not as noticed as on the ball work, he presses like a mad man in the best way. 

He's a guy that plays in midfield, much like a box-to-box midfielder, with comparisons to N'Golo Kante and Deco being brought up already. You can also add Steven Gerrard to this list if you so please because it's going to be utterly inevitable since it's being reported that he will wear the number 8. I find that it will most likely be that way since he came from RB Leipzig with the number 8 and will come here with the same as most players try to keep their number constant. This alone shows the kind of player he wants to be here, call it pride, courage or determination, whatever you so chose.

At £48m plus mysterious add ons, Keita comes in as our most expensive player to date. This means that the list now goes Keita, Salah and Carroll when it comes to our three most expensive (Salah's add ons had to have been triggered eventually with these good performances). Along with most likely having the legendary 8, I see him wanting to come in and impact on the spot. There is also a lot of good things about this coming at the time it does, as Barcelona just came in for him in the past hours, only to be told that the deal was already completed (probably alerting people something was up) and Bayern already on the look out for him. With these big clubs coming in for him and us coming out as the victors, it only makes this deal sweeter. He'll be in our great red next summer on July 1, when the window opens up once again. I'll do a chapter then (hopefully I'll still be doing this) to remind you all of this fun signing.

Talk about Naby in the comments if you would like!