'I want to help team win' - Keita not thinking about scoring goals for Liverpool

The Guinea international has scored two goals in his last two games for the club although he insists getting the three points is all that matters

Naby Keita insists he is solely focused on helping Liverpool win football matches rather than reflecting on the fact he has now opened his goalscoring account for the Reds.

Having gone most of the season without scoring following his move from RB Leipzig, the Guinea international has now scored two vital goals in back-to-back matches.

The first was the equaliser after Liverpool had fallen behind in their Premier League clash with Southampton - a game they would eventually go on to win 3-1 courtesy of further strikes from Mohamed Salah and Jordan Henderson.

And Keita followed that up by finding the net in the 2-0 Champions League quarter-final win over Porto to help put the Reds in command in the tie.

But he insists that personal glory is not on his mind and that he is only interested in helping the team as they continue their battle with Manchester City for the title, as well as their aspirations for European glory.

Keita told the club's official website: "Of course, yes, I think all players, everyone, would be happy to score their first goal.

"But for me, the most important thing is the team – and I’d love the team to win every match we play. Yes, it’s true it’s taken a while for me to score, but I’m a midfielder and we already have goalscorers here – Mo Salah, Firmino, Sadio – so we in midfield take advantage of the opportunity to help them.

"We are there to help them score and if we also have the chance to score ourselves, we try to take it. But the most important thing is for the team to win – above everything."

Keita was also asked about the adulation he's been receiving for his performances in recent weeks and he added: "When you’re playing, you can’t see yourself – it is people who are watching who know [how well you're playing that's good].

"When you hear things like that about yourself, you just have to carry on and try to do more. You can’t stop and you can’t be happy with it. I am happy people appreciate me – and what it does for me is give me more desire to work harder and do more.

"Yes, of course I’m happy [with my form]. When you do some good things you have to carry on, you must not stop and be happy with just that. If I do good things, I have to carry on working. For me it is nothing [at the moment], I am going to carry on training and following the advice of the manager during the sessions – and that’s it."

Next up for the Reds is a tough test against top-four hopefuls Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday and Keita is anticipating a difficult game.

He said: "Chelsea won’t be an easy match. They are a team that will be coming looking for victory at our home ground. But since we are playing at home we will have the fans there supporting us.

"I think it is important for us, but we’ve not won the points yet, so we’ll do everything we can to try to get them on Sunday."