Naby Keita’s first training session with his new Liverpool teammates this week may have been a bit of an eye-opener.
The first day back sees Liverpool’s players undergo various fitness assessments and tests of endurance. Much is made of the lactate test in particular, essentially a “last man standing” trial of stamina. Players run laps of the training field until they can no longer do so.
Being an extremely fit lad, Keita will have expected to fare well in these tests, and as a new boy he would have been keen to make an impression. Yet he was left trailing in the wake of the two players most under threat by his arrival. Two men approaching the twilight of their careers and who are fighting for their Liverpool future.
The 32-year-old James Milner was the last man standing — hardly a shock given that his training-ground feats of endurance are legend — but it was a little surprising that 30-year-old Adam Lallana was the one who pushed him hardest. It’s encouraging to see Lallana in such great shape after an injury-ravaged 12 months.
For much of his career Lallana’s stamina was questioned and he was often replaced around the 70-minute mark at former club Southampton and in the early part of his Anfield career. Since then his endurance has come on massively, but now it’s his durability that has let him down, to the extent that he is beginning to make Daniel Sturridge look like Iron Man.
It’s a shame because Lallana is a joy to watch when on song. He’s England’s most technically gifted footballer and, frankly, it isn’t even close. His injury absences have caused many to forget just how important a player he can be, for both club and country. Jurgen Klopp knows, though. What Liverpool achieved last season was impressive, but Klopp frequently insisted his players deserved extra credit because they did it while coping without Lallana for almost the entire season.
After being converted into a full-time central midfielder in 2016, Lallana took his game to another level. His energy, skill, intelligence and creativity brought a new dimension to the Reds’ midfield and he was a regular provider of goals from the middle of the park. In several aspects of the game he’s the best midfielder Liverpool have.
First and foremost, Lallana is the leader of Liverpool’s pressing game. Other players take their lead from him; when he goes, they go. He’s also the best Liverpool have at making off-the-ball runs beyond the front men, dragging defenders away and opening up space for others. The Reds missed that at times last season.
Lallana’s ability is not in question, but whether his body can withstand the rigours of a season in Liverpool’s midfield certainly is. And if he can’t (and that might prove the case), then why would the Reds continue to pay his high salary when they could offload him to another club?
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