Steven Gerrard was, I thought, a once in 50 years player. He had almost every skill set in a professional outfield player in his locker - superb passing range, great creativity and vision, powerful and accurate shooting for goal, great pace and endurance, box to box mobility, the ability to destroy play of other teams, and strength and great determination, consistency, and leadership ability. I did not think that another player like him would be a Reds player again for a long long time.
If Keita fulfils the promise that is seen in the video clips, Keita appears to have what it takes to not only become a player comparable to Gerrard in terms of attributes, but to actually exceed him. Gerrard was never renowned for his dribbling ability and tackling though he was always very enthusiastic about the latter. Keita on the other hand is an elite-level dribbler who would put to shame most wingers. At the same time he has the ability to anticipate passes of others and to intercept as well as to win 50-50 balls with the ferocity and ability of another mascherano. Practically the only thing that Keita appears to be ill-equipped to do due to his height is to be a good header of the ball. But in every other respect, he seems to have the potential to be even closer to the embodiment of the Roy of the Rovers all-in-one star player than even Gerrard was.
Let us hope that he will achieve his potential and even exceed it, and that he will emulate Gerrard in his long years of service to the club and spend the best years of his career playing for Liverpool. If he does that, I feel very confident that he will put to shame the likes of Pogba etc and be voted the best player in the Premiership and even in Europe in short order.
