Naby Keita has ruined his Anfield career

Has Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita just ruined his Anfield career after an abject performance against West Ham in the Premier League?

We’ve been asking this question for a few days: who will replace Jordan Henderson? James Milner now looks like he could have been a good choice.

Jurgen Klopp wants players that he can trust. Georginio Wijnaldum, who opened the scoring for the Reds, he can trust. Naby Keita, who is trying to string together some appearances in order to convince the doubters about his ability, he can’t.

And has he just blown his chance of an Anfield career?

Because when the gaffer needed to make a change, to bring something different to the game and to change things, he decided to withdraw Keita and bring on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

It had been a weird evening all night. The atmosphere was flat, an early Liverpool goal was met with an almost-instant response from West Ham through Issa Diop and then the Hammer did the undoable and took the lead after Pablo Fornals scored his first Premier League goal.

With plenty of options in midfield for Klopp to pick from – and Marko Grujic to come back from his loan spell with Hertha Berlin at the end of the season – we really could be seeing the beginning of the end for Naby Keita.

This was exactly the type of game he was brought in to dominate. Liverpool at home in front of a packed Anfield against a relegation struggler. But he never got into the game, never imposed himself and was brought off the field with his tail between his legs.

We shall see what happens in the future, but with players coming back to full fitness and Oxlade-Chamberlain and Milner in the queue and begging for more minutes, this is a real dangerous moment for the player.