Hamann says Liverpool star is 'simply not good enough' and 'will never make it'

Naby Keita is ‘simply not good enough’ and ‘will never make it’ at Liverpool, according to Anfield hero Didi Hamann.

Hamann, who helped Liverpool win the Champions League in 2005, ripped into Guinean midfielder Keita after Jurgen Klopp’s side beat Atletico Madrid 3-2 in the Champions League.

Keita scored a brilliant volley to double Liverpool’s lead over the Spanish club on Tuesday night but Hamann says he was at fault for both of Atletico’s goals.

Keita, who completed a £48m move to Anfield from RB Leipzig in 2018, was replaced at half-time by Fabinho and Hamann slammed his performance.

‘He’s in his fourth season now, and he scored a brilliant goal,’ Hamann told RTE. ‘And then five minutes later he makes a mistake for the first goal and then a mistake for the next goal.

‘He is simply not good enough for Liverpool, he will never make it as a Liverpool player. He wants to play with the ball but he’s not good enough to play with it.

‘If you are in the centre of midfield you have got to do two jobs, attack and defend. He scored a very good goal and he can be full of confidence, but he has to defend.

‘Defensively he doesn’t do his job and he cost his team two goals.’

Egyptian superstar Mohamed Salah scored twice for Liverpool in Madrid and Hamann says the performance was further proof that he is the best player in world football.

Salah has enjoyed a stunning start to the 2021-22 campaign, scoring 12 goals in 11 appearances to help Liverpool impress in Europe and domestically.

‘I don’t think there is any doubt that he [Salah] is the best in the world at the moment,’ Hamann added. ‘The Ballon d’Or is coming up, we shouldn’t forget that around February-March he had a barren spell.

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‘But with the form he’s in you’ve got a chance, because he guarantees you 25 goals and he’s been scoring these goals for a number of year now.

‘They compare him now to the likes of Owen, Fowler, Rush, Dalglish, all these guys – they were all centre forwards! This guys is a winger, he plays out wide.’

Liverpool manager Klopp, meanwhile, praised his team’s resilience after they edged out La Liga champions Atletico Madrid.

‘A tough game which we expected,’ the Reds boss said. ‘We did surprisingly well at the beginning.

‘Did we expect it to be that defensive? Probably not. It was not so easy. We scored two wonderful goals then played good football.

‘It was 2-0 then obviously Atletico are not too bothered about having possession. The first goal we gave away then the second, it was nice play but the gaps we had there… That was not alright.

‘At half time I think everyone in the stadium thought it was only going one way and we thought, “let’s give it a proper try again”.’

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