Liverpool bounced back to winning ways on Sunday against Brighton, three days after suffering a humiliating 4-0 defeat to Manchester City.In their first game as the newly-crowned champions of England, Jurgen Klopp’s side were dismantled at the Etihad Stadium.Most of the players looked like they may have partied a bit too hard over the course of the previous seven days.But Klopp, who was visibly frustrated after that below-par performance against City, made sure his players were up for the fight against an Aston Villa side currently fighting to avoid relegation.Liverpool didn’t have it all their own way at Anfield, but they did enough to seal a 2-0 win thanks to second-half goals from Sadio Mane and Curtis Jones.It took the hosts 71 minutes to find the breakthrough via Mane’s close-range finish.But Keita deserves a huge amount of credit for providing the assist.It initially looked like a fairly straightforward pass into Mane’s feet, but Liverpool have posted a video on their Twitter account which shows it was anything but.From the midfielder’s perspective, he could see Mane parallel with him, darting into the box.
But he had two Villa players closing him down, plus three more in the box, to contend with.The pass to Mane doesn’t look on from this angle, but Keita produces an inch-perfect pass to his teammate which contained just the right amount of pace and curl.
From this unique angle, you have to say that’s a top drawer assist.Watch it here…
Credit must also go to Roberto Firmino for helping to drag two Villa players away from the ball.
GIVEMESPORT’s Rob Swan says…
Big things were expected from Keita when a deal was struck with RB Leipzig in 2017.
The fact Liverpool fans were forced to wait an entire year before seeing the Guinea international in a red shirt pushed expectation levels sky high - but the 25-year-old hasn’t, as yet, been quite able to justify the hype.
That said, we’ve seen more than enough glimpses from Keita to understand why Klopp signed him in the first place.
And this assist, presuming he meant it, is yet another clear sign that he *is* a quality midfielder.
After a stop-start couple of seasons, perhaps we’ll finally see the very best of Keita next term.