James Milner was hugely impressed by Naby Keita’s assured Premier League debut for Liverpool and expects the midfielder to offer more and more as the season progresses.
Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane (2) and substitute Daniel Sturridge scored the goals as Jurgen Klopp’s men enhanced the feeling of optimism around Anfield with a 4-0 thrashing of West Ham on Sunday.
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Yet Keita, making his competitive debut for Liverpool after completing his long-awaited move from RB Leipzig, was arguably the standout performer, earning rich praise from fellow midfielder Milner.
‘He’s a good player, you can see that straight away,’ Milner told Sky Sports.
‘He’s only going to get better, so to come into a new team, a new style of play, and to do so well, you can only imagine how good he’s going to be in a few months’ time with more games and more time with the boys.
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‘He’s a ball-winner, [with] great drive and fantastic ability as well. He’s top quality, like all the signings we’ve brought in.
‘It’s more competition, which is exactly what you want. You look at some of the boys on the bench today and those who aren’t quite fit yet, it’s a great squad and exactly what we want.’
Liverpool have been tipped to mount a strong challenge for the Premier League title and Milner was satisfied with their opening outing.
‘The important thing was to get off to a good start, the best thing is to get a good performance under our belt and go from there,’ he added.
