Jurgen Klopp insists Naby Keita will not be leaving Liverpool this summer despite another disappointing season at Anfield.
The Reds agreed a deal to sign the Guinea international from RB Leipzig in 2017, with the midfielder arriving on Merseyside the following summer.
Keita has endured an injury-hit three years at the club, while his performances have often been inconsistent.
The 26-year-old has slipped down the midfield pecking order and has managed just seven Premier League starts in 2020/21.
That has led to question marks over his future at Anfield, but Klopp says Keita is still in his long-term plans.
“It’s a lot of things in this year, it was really tricky," Klopp said. “We had to change so often and then in the moment you try to go for stability, it’s really like this and that’s what we need.
“You can see now for example, Man United – I think the last line played nearly the last 20 games together.
“Then you can make changes everywhere because you have a proper basis. We never had that.
“Then on top of that, then making two or three changes in midfield just doesn’t work out in football. People say, ‘Try it.’ We would try definitely if we could be not only nearly sure that it could work out, but you need stability in a football team.
“Other teams are too good that you just make eight or nine changes. That hit a few players this year. Some of them were of course injured, coming back took a while.
“Naby trains really well in the moment, I have to say. He trains really well, like a lot of other players, and looks really good in training. But this year now we need stability.
“We will make changes from time to time definitely, but it’s not like we pick now seven, eight, nine players to change and say, ‘Maybe we can win it like this.’ The long-term future of Naby Keita, from my point of view, is here, yes.”
Liverpool are seven points adrift of the top four and must beat Manchester United on Sunday to keep their Champions League hopes alive.
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